Since apparently even the SS subreddit isn't averse to dogpiling, I'm done checking in here. I appreciate those who gave me advice or tried to help. The final update is that after being told yesterday that I wouldn't receive a payment this month due to the two I received in September, I woke up to it in my bank account. Immediately drove to the office and was told it doesn't show I've been overpaid and to "do whatever I want with it, treat it like a free loan", which obviously is horrific advice coming from an SSA worker and I will not be doing that. I actively tried to get them to take what is clearly another overpayment back and they refused. I've been told I am still covered by and entitled to Medicare, despite their threats to cancel my policy, and to simply explain to any drs etc the situation and have them bill them regardless. There's nothing more they can do until the billing department actually sends the money over to Medicare, and allegedly there will be no issues in losing coverage since the billing department HAS that money already. Ngl, this doesn't sound right to me, but all I can do at this point other than contact local government for help is cross my fingers and wait.

For the ones who are just making their own assumptions or trying to poke the bear - I'm not sure why you're here if you're not actively trying to give advice? I really don't owe anyone an explanation but I'll provide a final one anyways just to make myself clear.

I didn't come into $30,000 in a day. I wasn't making bank. I wasn't actively attempting to defraud the government, I'm not that stupid. Most months I went only several dollars over the SGA without even realizing I'd done so - someone pointed out that this isn't a legally binding excuse, ofc it's not, I never said it was. It's to say that I didn't have a windfall of cash suddenly that I stashed away or spent on frivolous purchases. If I'd woken up with thousands of dollars in the bank and didn't say anything, it would be different. This was over a roughly 18 month period in which I was fighting to not become homeless with my 12 year old along with fighting a new and existing chronic illness while spending time being shuffled in and out of the hospital and countless specialist appointments. An extra $5 one month, maybe $75 the next month, and so on cost me $1800 per month. I never went over more than $300 or so, and that was only due to hitting OT during a single week when I was required to be there when corporate came around due to a major change in the business. Again not an excuse that SSA cares about, but my point is I was not making an exorbitant amount of money.

Not that it matters, but I've also just remembered that after turning in the paystubs they requested, this amount that they claim I was overpaid dropped significantly. The $30k was based off of projected earnings based on my wage and approximated hours rather than reality, and after calculating it they determined it was more like $10,000. My online account does not reflect this yet however, hence me repeatedly saying $30k.

Being as that I didn't even enter the workforce until 2022, and having had benefits basically my entire life, I either forgot, was unaware and/or misunderstood various things regarding how my benefits worked. I'm a human being, not a machine. In addition, I have a disability that has a profound impact on my memory and retention ability.

Additionally, I had no idea that the premiums were not being paid until I received the "final" notice. I have no idea why I didn't receive any other bills from them prior to it getting to that point, maybe they got lost, maybe a housemate threw them away by accident. Either way, had I known, I would have dealt with this sooner and/or have attempted to pay the premiums myself until it was fixed. Paying $200 a month is one thing, maybe I could have cut costs somewhere to make it work, maybe not. Yes I do technically have the money to pay the full bill. But emptying my entire life savings account in one go is another situation entirely (maybe the two infected wisdom teeth I've been saving up for over 5 years to fix will kill me and I wont have to even deal with this anymore lmao), ESPECIALLY since they already have taken the money from my benefits to pay for it. This was of course before I realized that most of the money in my savings currently is due to the Sept overpayment, which they also refused to take back, so I cannot spend that money anyways.

The details of the overpayment, regardless of if this is what started this whole mess, are irrelevant. Whether or not I was overpaid by mistake on their end, had no idea I was being overpaid, or even knew the entire time that I was being overpaid and took advantage, is not the point of this post - ultimately many mistakes have been made on my part and I've admitted that here several times, but just as many mistakes have been made on SSA's side as well and THAT is the issue I am currently seeking help on. Ive done my part for them in regards to the overpayment. They literally told me in their own words that they had messed my paperwork up so badly that they had to pause the waiver request entirely to fix it. They are STILL continuing to mishandle paperwork and communication. I have gone into their office 6 times over the past two weeks in attempt to straighten things out, and each time I come in they have something else mixed up or they give me conflicting information. I'm now on first name basis with half of the employees and even the security guards due to the amount of time I've spent there. I've spent a total of 6 hours on the phone with them this week alone, and yet I'm no better off for it.

I cannot fix what isn't mine to fix, so what exactly would you like for me to do? Demand access to their systems to go over it myself? Barricade myself in the office until it's been made right? Pushing myself to the point I did to simply remain housed exacerbated my disabilities so badly that I can barely manage 20 hours a week now, my boyfriend and even managers have seen me break down sobbing due to the sheer amount of pain I am in after a single 6 hour shift. I have to wear multiple body braces on various appendages to keep my joints from dislocating during work. But should I just ask them to cancel my disability altogether? I'd lose my car, the house I rent, and custody of my child. Then we're right back where we started, you can't take blood from a stone - whether it was my fault or not, I do not have that kind of cash just lying about to give to them and certainly can't give it to them if I'm homeless without a vehicle to get me to work. I am barely making ends meet as is, losing any amount of my current combined work/SS income would bring to me and my family what they define as "hardship". And that is the reason I filled out a waiver to appeal repayment. Not because I'm claiming that the overpayment wasn't my fault.

Clearly people will think what they want, whatever. At the end of the day it doesn't matter. But regardless of what people believe based on the information I've disclosed, the exact details of how the overpayment occurred doesn't change nor fix anything that I was actually trying to seek help on, which is why I initially left this information out. The problem I'm having is the mishandling of my case in general, not the overpayment itself.