Dec 4, 2025
Ruthann Pickerd thought her 2021 diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease that forced her to retire from a 30-year nursing career was the worst news she would ever get.
If there was a silver lining to that situation, it was probably being able to spend more time with her husband of 27 years, John, a Vietnam vet, before he suddenly died in 2022.
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Then the notice from the Social Security Administration (SSA) arrived in February 2024: the Social Security Disability payments the retired grandmother had been getting since her diagnosis stopped completely.
Pickerd, who lives in Butler, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh, filed for a waiver but had to cease treatments for her illness because she couldn’t afford them. Then, almost a year and a half after filing, Pickerd finally heard back.
“I got a letter from the SSA, 17 months later, saying we received your request for a waiver,” Pickerd told Pittsburgh television station WPXI (1). “Seventeen months I waited.”
But the letter bought even more bad news. The SSA told Pickerd that the waiver her adult son with disabilities gets for his care through Medicaid was being treated as income. So not only did she not currently qualify for Social Security Disability; according to this second notice, she shouldn’t have been getting it to begin with.
Now the SSA wants every dime it ever paid the chronically ill widow back. And despite taking almost a year and a half to respond to her, the SSA has given Pickerd a matter of days to pay back what they say she owes. She has until Friday.
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“Now, right before the holidays, they decide we want our money,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what happens to you or your son. We just want our money.”
So now Picked faces the holiday season consumed by fear – that she’ll lose her home, that her son will lose the care he needs. She even has reason to fear jail time, which the SSA is threatening.
Older Americans devastated by confusing SSA rules
Pickerd is far from the only older American confused by Social Security payments and afraid of unwittingly receiving overpayments and then facing aggressive clawbacks.
"Every year, we've seen an increase in the volume of people calling and looking for help," Natasha Pietrocola, director of the Division of Senior and Adult Services in Cuyahoga County, told News 5 earlier this year, in connection with a different case, in which a 65-year-old Ohio widow was being pursued for overpayments made to her dead husband.
In the case of overpayments, Social Security will reclaim its money by withholding benefits. As of March of 2025, the default repayment rate is 100%, meaning that 100% of payments are withheld until the overpayment is recovered. Previously, the rate had been 10% or $10, whichever was higher (2).
As Pietrocola commented at the time in connection to American seniors facing the new repayment rates: "That’s going to have devastating effects for them to be able to actually afford to live."
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What to do if it happens to you
If the SSA is saying you owe them due to an overpayment, you can file a “Request for Reconsideration” if you don’t agree that you were overpaid, or don’t agree you were overpaid by the stated amount, within 60 days of the notice. If you file within 30 days, Social Security will not collect money until a decision is made (4).
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If you agree you were overpaid but believe it wasn't your fault and you cannot afford to pay it back, file a"Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery." Filing within 30 days can stop collections while your request is pending.
If you agree you were overpaid but would like to request a different rate of repayment, file a “Request for Overpayment Recovery Rate.”
You are permitted to appeal a decision made by the SSA up to four times, first by asking for a reconsideration, second via a hearing with a judge, third by requesting a review of your hearing, and finally, by filing a federal district court action. For the latter of these, you might want to consider accessing low-cost legal aid.
If you don’t have one already, create a my Social Security account to upload forms and monitor it regularly. ‘
Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
WPXI (1); Social Security Administration (2).
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Libby MacDonald is a Senior Staff Reporter at Moneywise. She has extensive experience in business and consumer reporting, having covered topics including insurance, wealth management, housing and equities.
