People who live with disabilities and who also work part-time must pay very close attention to how their work impacts their eligibility for the disability benefits they are entitled to. This is a story about how Legal Aid helped our client to navigate the Social Security system and successfully challenge an error connected to his benefits—saving him over $30,000.
When the pandemic hit, thousands of people lost work almost overnight and then gradually went back as workplaces reopened. “James” was one of those people.
James works hard, putting together a few part-time and seasonal jobs—some as an employee, some as an independent contractor—to make ends meet each year. James is also paraplegic and uses a wheelchair. Our laws entitle him to receive Social Security disability benefits, but these are not enough to meet all his financial needs, so he uses his part-time work to supplement his income.
During the pandemic, James received federal paycheck protection assistance from some of his jobs. This "extra income" caused the Social Security Administration to terminate his disability benefits and tell James he had to pay back tens of thousands of dollars.
Fortunately, James found Legal Aid. We determined that his COVID pay should not have been counted against him, so we challenged the errors, worked with James to assemble financial and medical records to tell his story, and represented James at a hearing. The result? We eliminated the entire wrongful overpayment amount. James got a clean financial slate and can get back to his routine.
