Woman’s Social Security Disability benefits restored

A woman visited the Ombudsman office with a problem with her Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits. She normally receives her payment on the fourth Wednesday of each month, but for the last two months it did not arrive.

She visited the Social Security Administration the week after her fist missed payment and learned that her benefit had stopped because the SSA believed that she was receiving payments from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. The woman did everything she could think of to try to prove she was not receiving Workers’ Compensation payments. She had been three times to the SSA office to supply information. She requested a letter from Workers’ Compensation stating that she was not receiving a benefit, but the SSA did not accept that document. So she turned to the Ombudsman for assistance.

The Ombudsman contacted the SSA on the woman’s behalf and received an almost immediate response, which demonstrated that the woman’s visits to the SSA had already started staff review of the problem. The problem lay in the fact that the woman did receive Bureau of Workers’ Compensation payments prior to the time she submitted a claim for Social Security Disability. Information about that was entered into the system at the SSA as a routine part of the SSD application process. After her claim for SSD was processed and awarded, a code in the system that requested a follow-up on the Workers’ Compensation payments was not deleted. Fortunately this problem is one that can be corrected locally rather than requiring action from another office within the Social Security system.

Two days later the Ombudsman received notification that the change had been processed successfully and a retroactive deposit of more than $4,500 was released. The next day the woman called to say the funds were deposited into her bank.

The Ombudsman Column, a production of the Joint Office of Citizens' Complaints, summarizes selected problems that citizens have had with government services, schools and nursing homes in the Dayton area. Contact the Ombudsman by writing to the Beerman Building, 11 W. Monument Avenue, Suite 606, Dayton 45402, or telephone (937) 223-4613, or by electronic mail at ombudsman@dayton-ombudsman.org or like us on Facebook at "Dayton Ombudsman Office."

About the Author