Social Security Agency Wrongly Reduced Benefits During Pandemic, Harming the Most Vulnerable, New Class Action Alleges

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Social Security Administration SSI Class Action Lawsuit Overview:

• Who: Social Security Administration
• What: The Social Security Administration is accused of wrongly docking the supplemental security income of people who relied on the benefits, including parents of foster children and the elderly.
• Where: Nationwide

The Social Security Administration wrongly reduced the benefits of some of society’s most vulnerable people during the pandemic, including people with disabilities, parents of young foster children and the elderly, a new nationwide class action lawsuit alleges.

The class action complaint was filed by multiple plaintiffs against Acting Commissioner of Social Security Kilolo Kijakazi on Sept. 15 in a New York federal court, alleging violations of the constitution and the laws governing federal agencies.

According to the lawsuit, thousands of very low income older adults and people with disabilities were harmed by an “arbitrary and capricious rule change” by the Social Security Administration (SSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“That conduct caused, and is continuing to cause, injury to plaintiffs and the proposed class by wrongfully imposing penalties that have the effect of reducing their benefits, risking harm to their health and safety.”

The lawsuit alleges that on March 17, 2020, SSA closed its offices across the country and suspended some operations, like determining eligibility of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients.

Social Security Offices Closed During the Pandemic Made it Difficult for People to Update and Access Their Social Security Benefits, a New Class Action Claims

Before the pandemic, millions of SSI recipients reported changes in their finances to SSA in person at local field offices, the lawsuit stated. But since offices closed, these SSI recipients have instead been required to report financial changes to SSA solely by phone, fax or mail. 

The lawsuit claims this is difficult for many, and even for those who were able to report their financial changes easily, SSA often did not process the updated information for many months. 

“As a result of this failure, when SSA later identifies that the recipient was ‘overpaid’ during each of those many months, the recipient faces recoupment going forward—resulting in a meaningful reduction of each month’s benefits,” the class action lawsuit states.

The agency issued an interim rule to deal with the issue, through a no-fault waiver of certain overpayments, however the implementation of the rule is flawed, the lawsuit alleges.

“The arbitrary limitations on the [rules] applicability have resulted in many SSI recipients being assessed overpayments and thus experiencing unfair and improper benefit reductions, causing substantial harm.”

The class action lawsuit alleged the agency has violated the Social Security Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Due Process and Equal Protection guarantees of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Plaintiff LaQuana Campos, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children, was told she was overpaid by thousands of dollars by the SSA and had her benefits cut, even though she says the payments should have been covered under the new waiver.

Campos says, as a result, her phone service was cut off, causing her to worry that her children would be unable to reach her in case of an emergency. She says she had panic attacks and struggled to provide even the basics for the family.

Plaintiff Tosha Adams, a 60 year old who looks after two foster children in New York, says she has not received SSI benefits since November 2020. 

“Ms. Adams has no money to support herself other than a small amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to pay for her food,” the lawsuit says. “She must rely on her adult daughter, who provides Ms. Adams a couple hundred dollars per month to pay for rent and other expenses.”

The plaintiffs are seeking to represent all current and future recipients of Supplemental Security Income who were assessed an overpayment debt between March 2020 and the end of the pandemic.

They’re seeking certification of the class action, an injunction preventing the agency from trying to recoup overpayments, an order forcing the agency to reassess overpayments, plus fees, costs and a jury trial.

Meanwhile, Social Security disability insurance benefits are hugely important to millions of Americans. Indeed, approximately 8.5 million Americans receive disabled-worker benefits from Social Security, along with 1.5 million children of disabled workers and 117,000 spouses. For a comprehensive article on how to apply for social security disability benefits, click here. 

What do you think of the allegations in this class action lawsuit? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP.

The Social Security COVID-19 Class Action Lawsuit is Campos, et al. v. Kill Kijakazi, Case No. 1:21-cv-05143, in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York.

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