HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — For three decades, Henrico resident Curtis Brandon has dedicated his professional life to what has been a rewarding career in public education.
“I feel that I can help kids, as well as parents, enjoy what education can give you, and that is an opportunity to be something in life," Brandon said.
In those thirty years, Brandon has paid into the Social Security system, which he relied on in 2019 when he was approved for disability benefits and again in 2022 when retirement kicked in.
But currently, he says the Social Security Administration (SSA) is hurting him rather than helping him.
“Social Security, SSA, is making problems for me," he said.
In June, Brandon received a letter from the SSA stating that it had apparently overpaid him in disability benefits by about $5,900 and now wanted its money back.
No dates of the overpayment or further explanation of the issue were given aside from a small paragraph saying, "We have determined that you are no longer entitled to disability benefits. Since we did not stop payments in a timely manner, you are overpaid."
However, Brandon said he hasn't received disability benefits since 2022, when he switched from disability to retirement.
“That is incorrect. You never provided me with any paperwork or any explanation to show me how I’ve been overpaid. So, I'm giving you an explanation as to why you're wrong," Brandon said.
The letter gave him the option to refund the money or appeal.
Brandon chose the latter, which is supposed to pause the SSA's efforts to recover the money. But just a couple of days after receiving the letter, he said he did not get his usual monthly payment for June.
Then, two weeks later, he received another letter stating he no longer qualified for retirement benefits.
“You send me something to tell me about an opportunity to respond back and reconsider, and before I could even appeal, you've taken the money, and my account is in red," Brandon said. "When I see two conflicting documents, that tells me that their system is not up to date."
Citing privacy laws, the SSA declined to comment on Brandon's case and did not confirm whether the full withholding of his June benefits was connected to the alleged overpayment.
“Think about 30 years that I've worked, and in those 30 years, I paid you guys. It went to you guys. You didn’t have any interruptions. So, I need you to do something for me," Brandon said.
In general, when the SSA assesses an overpayment, it can and does withhold a person's monthly check or portions of it until it pays itself back.
Victoria Richardson, a public benefits attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center and former SSA employee, said the agency's overpayment policy has rapidly changed, leaving room for error and surprises for both staff and beneficiaries.
"There's a lot of inconsistency. There's a lot of confusion," she said. "It's kind of a mess."
Before last year, the SSA's policy was to withhold 100% of a person's benefits to recover an overpayment.
However, Richardson said there was public outrage over the policy due to the burden it placed on beneficiaries who had to go several months without payments — especially when there could be many years between the date of the overpayment and when a notice was sent.
"A lot of people, their sole source of income is their Social Security check. In cases for disability, these people can't work. They have no other source of income. It's really important for them to get their full check, and a lot of times, these overpayments were not the fault of the person receiving their payment," she said.
So, in March 2024, under the Biden administration, the SSA revised its overpayment withholding rate from 100% to 10%.
But in March of this year, the Trump administration reversed it back to 100%, citing the "significant responsibility to be good stewards of the trust funds for the American people."
One month later, in April, the SSA scaled the rate back to 50%, but only temporarily.
The withholding rate is set to return to 100% in October.
“People are being punished on the back end because the SSA was the one that made the mistake, and now they have to forfeit their whole check because of this," Richardson said. "You have no time to prepare for this, no time to budget for this. It just really puts people at a huge disadvantage, and it's just fundamentally unfair.”
Data shows that since 2020, the SSA has gradually clawed back more and more money each year, with $3.8 billion recovered in fiscal year 2020 and $4.9 billion recovered in 2024.
According to a 2024 inspector general investigation report, there were $72 billion in improper payments, mostly due to overpayments, between 2015 and 2022. That's less than 1% of total benefits paid out. The report said the main causes of overpayment were a reliance on beneficiaries to self-report changes in their circumstances and insufficient controls in the SSA's automatic and manual processes.
The SSA, which has been struggling with a staffing shortage, was not always "effective or consistent" in how it processed improper payments, the report said.
After CBS 6 inquired with the SSA on Brandon's behalf and after his meeting with a representative at a local field office, he received a new letter. This time, it stated he would be receiving a $5,000 check — most of what was initially withheld from him — and his usual monthly retirement benefits were being restored.
Brandon said neither the local representative nor his updated letter explained the reason for the initial overpayment assessment.
The new letter stated the SSA would still be keeping $561 from his next check, and Brandon said he doesn't know why. He has filed another reconsideration request.
Ultimately, he felt the frustration and financial stress the process put him through was unfair.
“It’s horrible. I've never seen anything like it, and I know that if it's happening to me, it's happening to someone else. That is why I wanted to bring this to your attention, because we don't deserve this. This needs to be fixed, and they need to do the right thing," Brandon said.
Richardson said beneficiaries have several options if an overpayment is assessed:
If you do not agree that you were overpaid, you can file a reconsideration request.
If you agree you were overpaid but cannot afford to pay it back or believe the overpayment was not your fault, you can request a waiver.
If you agree to pay back an overpayment but not at the stated recovery rate, you can request a change in the withholding rate.
Because of the uncertainty surrounding the SSA's changing policies, she encourages beneficiaries to be proactive in reporting all changes in circumstances and any unexpected variations in monthly payments.
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This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. To learn more about how we use AI in our newsroom, click here.
