Yup! Been there done that. I will also have my Child support taken out even though my son has lived with me the last couple years. If I dont get mine they dont get paid back. It really sucks for me cause I did do some work in the last couple of years. I didn't get paid for that! The SSA is messed up.

I guess its all part of a medicaid recovery type of thing so that they can keep some programs going. I know our state started enforcing the recovery program for people in nursing homes and have any kind of a house. Many of them do not have enough income to pay out the 5-6,000.00 dollars it takes to pay for care each month and they have what is called nursing home medicaid. The only thing that is different is their income base is different from someone needing routine medical assistance.

Sorry for giving you more info than you asked for......but wanted to kind of give you an idea of why they are asking you to assign funds back to them.

OK, well I'm glad to know that I'm not just being scammed. Heh. ;) You never know, right? I was thinking about this though and it seems SO wrong in some ways.... ok, so if I am declared to be disabled, I am then expected to pay the state back for the benefits that I received that I NEEDED. However, if someone gets benefits for years and then just goes back to work one day, they are not expected to pay back anything. I know this to be the case because I have a friend who received welfare benefits from the time she was a teenager until her late twenties while she was using drugs... then when she got clean, she got a job and that was the end of her needing welfare. She was never asked to pay back anything. It's SO backwards.

Ok, here's another question... let's say I have to hire a lawyer.... at that point, they would be entitled to any back pay I might get to pay their fees. But if I had already signed that over to welfare, which of them would get the money?? Does this mean I can't hire a lawyer?

~Jennifer

I also have had to recieve help from welfare just to keep going while waiting for my ssd to get approved.I signed something that if i get a lump sum payment i would have to pay the state back but i specifically asked the lady if that ment my ssd if approved and she said that didnt count.Because I figured if it did I would not ask for cash assistence.Well, i guess I will see because i have been approved but havent heard anything still about my back money.ssd sent me my first monthly check but i always thought that the back money would show up before the monthly check.have they acually taken any of your money from you??It all makes no sence at all,i know ....heaven forbid they let us get even a little bit ahead to pay our bills...

It is so ridiculous... billions of dollars to bail out a bunch of millionaires who ran their businesses into the ground and then they try to suck the life out of disabled, destitute people. It really is beyond frustrating.

Anyway, they haven't actually taken any money from me because I haven't gotten approved for SSI yet. The paper I signed said that any back pay would go directly to them... if there was still money left over after they took out what they were owed, welfare would then send me a check for the remainder. Of course I want to be approved for SSI, but I dread having to deal with welfare with all of this....

~Jennifer

There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how your checks come out once you are initally approved! Some people get their lump sum of back pay before they even get the letter letting them know they were approved! Go figure!

However, I will be curious to hear how this works out with paying the state back and needing to pay an attorney too. I would imagine you could get this info from the SSA or from an attorney that does nothing but handle SS cases as I am sure there has to be a way for that to work because so many people must have representation for their hearings.

Please be sure to let us know what you find out.

This is what happened with mine
When I was finally approved i went to my local Office
The way the worker described and done mine is
She said it is Not so much that they deduct money from your back pay
it is more that they deduct that amount from the amount
you would have got that money

So this is how she did it
She went through the months (she had read outs for every check i
ever got for TCA (Welfare) She deducted the amount that i got from
welfare from the amount i would have gotten had i gotten a SSI check
she than added up all the money that was left and that was my back pay
They do not really GIVE thew state the money per-say but the way she said
it was you can not get a welfare and a SSI check in the same month
so they deduct the welfare payment
Now mind you they ONLY deducted the amount of the welfare check that was for ME
They did NOT take the amount of the TCA that was given to me for my kids so it was
only a third of the check that was deducted
For instance I got a check say they took out a third of my Welfare and they said the
third equaled 120.00 and than they determined that my Social Security would be 620.00 for
that year (I am not using the actual numbers)
They would than take the 120 and multiply it by 12 and they would take the 620 and multiply
it by 12 months and than they would subtract the total of the welfare total from the SSI total
and the final amount id what they gave you for back money for that year and they determined
that for each year and than added it up
At the ends the total of how much the SSI checks would have been after those other welfare
(thirds) were subtracted would be your back pay check.
I hope to heck that made some sense.
When I signed that paper i was a bit worried about how it would work too
Buy the way after that meeting i showed her my ID and birth certificate and the same
for the kids and i had a first check from back pay in 10 days

Yes, that made complete sense, April. That is completely logical... that makes a lot more sense than all of the things that were going through my mind. So it's basically just that you can't get welfare and SSI in the same month. That's simple enough.

However, I have to wonder about what I signed still.... the paper I signed said that my back pay would go directly to welfare. Then if anything is left, welfare would send it to me. It also says that if my back pay is not enough to cover what I owe them that they will then deduct that from my regular SSI payments. But that doesn't even make sense... how could the back pay NOT cover what I'd owe them? That would mean that my SSI would be LESS every month than my welfare- which is $200 a month. That just can't be.

Also, you said that you received back pay for several years? I was told that they no longer do that- that you can get a maximum of six months' back pay. Is that true?? Does anyone know??

~Jennifer

The paper said the same thing when I signed it so i am sure that is the same paper and I too was thinking ALL the things you were i am sure actually asked a worker at DSS and She LIED and told me Oh e get all your money and send you what is left the local worker at SSA when i went and she was doing my paperwork zi told her that she got PISSED and called the woman up while I was there LOL she stated I misunderstood and she never said that YEA whatever
Anyway believe me I know what you are dealing with there


As far as 6 months Hmm that is a new one I was told 4 years but I have had mine since 2007 They never had a cap on it at all and used to hand you all your back pay in one lump sum
than when I got approved it was 4 years and they paid it in 3 payments i got 1600.00 feb than 1600.00 in Aug. Than I got the balance the following Feb.


According to a couple sites it says they pay one year to the day from Application.
So things Might have changed since 2007 I am unsure if I still have my paperwork that had the info on for mine I will dig and see
I would if I was you call your local branch and ask the question regarding what the limit is.
I tried searching their site but it is a MESS.


i found this site
http://www.ultimatedisabilityguide.com/ssdi_questions.html

Hope it helps

Well, I am still very unsure of whats gonna happen with my back pay if I ever get it.I did ask welfare about takeing my back pay and they said they dont but who knows I guess I will have to see.They lie about just everything anyways.I did recieve a letter that i owe them a months check because i got a welfare check and my first ssd payment in the same month.I am really worried about my electric getting shut off because i was signed up with welfare for direct payment.I owed almost a bill for two thousand dollars when they started paying it .I has assummed I would have my back pay to take care of it before welfare cut me off.Everything is so much in the air right now .I was hopeing that when I was finally approved some of my money issues would be resolved but I am still very stressed and not sure of anything.My acual SSD is less than welfare was giveing me and I worked since I was fifteen.I was looking forward to the back money to help with bills,basic neccesities and some of the things that were repossed.But it seems everyones got thier hands in it before I even see it.......welfare,lawyer,bill companies .i call my bank every morning to see if the back money is deposited because I was told if I have a lump sum in there in the thousands that my account could be froze and all the bill places I owe can take it....It just seems like we never catch a break,heaven forbid we have enough money for toilet paper and a roof over our heads if we are lucky.