JW, SSI recipient from Massachusetts

Letter from the Social Security Administration explaining that the recipient was not eligible for SSI in June 2012 because of having $3.11 more than the $2000 financial resource limit.
Letter from the Social Security Administration saying that, after their review of her financial eligibility for SSI, the recipient was “over resourced in June and July 2012, as well as in January through March and June of 2014, a total penalty of $4…
 

In the summer of 2014, I had my first “SSI eligibility review”. In the review, the SSA agent was very clear that these reviews were done to look for evidence of defrauding the government. He noticed that there were a couple of months in 2012 when I had a little more than $2000. I showed him my initial award letter telling me that I had until the end of 2012 to spend down the balance of the first, lump sum SSI payment. He said, “Oh yeah, that’s right.” In fact, even though the agent agreed with me during the review, he penalized me for being over the limit anyway.

When he reviewed my financial records for 2014, he docked me month after month. When I said that he should subtract the value of a month he was taking back before calculating my resources for the next month, he laughed at me and said, “That’s not how we do it.” Month after month, he took back 100% of my income.

When I got the notice of the results of this review, I was still docked the two months in 2012 along with the several months in 2014. It didn’t matter that The Social Security Administration originally told me that I would have until the end of 2012 to spend down the first lump-sum SSI payment. It didn’t matter that the agent agreed that was the case. I was penalized anyway.

The reason that I had saved the maximum amount I thought I was allowed, over so many months in 2014, is that I was looking for a new apartment. Affordable housing is difficult to find, for anyone. Add to that the challenge of finding an apartment that is wheelchair accessible, and you have a recipe for financial disaster. When the Social Security Administration conducts their reviews, they call it fraud if someone has even a couple of dollars over $2000 on the day that they receive their SSI payment. I was just trying to find an accessible apartment so that I could live in my community, where rents are set at 21st century prices.