How to Get SSI back pay

**turk** · 09-28-2006, 02:39 PM

Hello,

I have a friend here in California who is disabled from birth with Cerebral Palsy and has been on SSI for sometime now. A few years ago, in order to survive(lives on his own and is fully self-supporting) and due to rent increases and increases in other expenses he had to start borrowing money in order to make ends meet. Because of his lack of knowledge, he did not notify SSI of this and when they found out, they believed that this was money which was given to him and as a result they cut his benefit to less than half of what it was. This in turn led him to borrow even more money in order to make up this even greater deficit (which ultimately led him to file bankruptcy as some of the money he had to borrow was through credit card debt). In order to disprove this, my friend was able to show them that it was in fact loans which he had received and as a result, they reversed their decision and ultimately restored him back to his correct pay. The question is whether or not it is possible for him to regain his back pay which they had incorrectly had docked him for (which two years worth). He went to his counselor to whom he had requested this who then had him fill out an appeals form but never got back to him. After numerous phone calls and even going down to his office, my friend has begun a letter writing campaign in order to get this resolved but to no avail thus far. He has sent two letters to his counselor (CMRR) and a third one to the Office Manager when there was no reply from the counselor. He is probably going to try to contact the Regional Commissoner next as the people at his local office are just flat out ignoring him. I am somewhat perplexed by this whole fiasco because I have never seen anyone act in such an unprofessional manner especially when you consider that this is someon'e life whom we are dealing with. I've heard a lot of these horror stories but still it is quite unbelievable when you experience them yourself. Any suggestions on what he should do or is there something I'm totally missing here?

I just feel that the lack of respect they've shown to my friend is terrible. At least they should respond to him but I guess for some reason they feel they don't have to. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Turk

**Mr. Knowitall** · 09-29-2006, 05:43 AM

I'm not in a good position to assess his eligibility for that type of back pay, as you have not made clear whether he properly pursued his remedies at the time his benefits were reduced or when they were cut off. That could affect his eligibility. He probably qualifies for legal aid, so he should look into that option - here are some potential sources.

**turk** · 09-29-2006, 10:12 AM

Quoting Mr. Knowitall

I'm not in a good position to assess his eligibility for that type of back pay, as you have not made clear whether he properly pursued his remedies at the time his benefits were reduced or when they were cut off. That could affect his eligibility. He probably qualifies for legal aid, so he should look into that option - here are some potential sources.

First, I would like to thank you for your response. Let me attempt to clarify. He was never cut off completely. His benefits were reduced to about 40%. I would have to assume that he properly pursued his remedies since he was eventually restored to his full pay which he is now currently receiving. What he is trying to pursue is obtaining the amount of pay which he was docked since it turns out the reason he was being docked was faulty (they assumed he was being gifted money when in fact he it was money he had borrowed which was proven). Now the issue is whether or not he can retrieve the pay which was lost. He has begun a letter writing campaign (which I have been helping him with) and has not been able to even get a response (or akcnowledgment) from his local office after 3 letters. We are about to forward this to the Regional Commissioner of which we are currently in the process of drafting the letter. This all occurred after he was told by his contact at the local office that they were going to look into it for him over 6 months ago. The SSI worker at that time was supposed to forward some information over to a legal aid worker who was working on my friend's case but never received anything and she left the legal aid office resulting in his case being closed. My friend has contacted them (and is keeping them in the loop as he is copying them on the letters he's sending out) but they will not do anything until the SSI people respond. I hope this helps to clarify as this is probably different from most of what you see out there.

Thanks,

Turk