'I Feel Scared' — 65-Year-Old Widow Hit With $70K Social Security Bill A Decade After Husband's Death, He Called SSA 'Constantly' To Fix Overpayment

Grief alone is enough. But imagine adding a five-figure bill from the federal government on top of it. That's what Ruth Podmanik, a 65-year-old widow from Sheffield Lake, Ohio, is dealing with—more than a decade after her husband passed away.

In an interview with WEWS-TV in  Cleveland, Ruth shared her story: her husband Ed died in 2012 after battling leukemia. Now, she's being told she owes the Social Security Administration nearly $70,000 in alleged overpayments tied to him.

"He liked spending time with his family and especially my grandson," Ruth said. "He was a good guy and I really miss him."

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The issue? While Ed was out of work during treatment, he received disability payments. But when he eventually returned to work, the checks kept coming—and not because he wanted them to.

"Did he ever question…," the reporter began.

"Yes, he called them constantly," Ruth said. "(He) said ‘I'm back to work. Why am I getting this?' They said because you have Leukemia."

That was over a decade ago. And no one said anything—until now.

Ruth recently retired and applied for her husband's Social Security benefits. That's when she was blindsided with a notice from the SSA: they want $69,087.50 back.

"Not once did they say anything to me about, ‘Hey, you know you still got an overpayment here?'" she told WEWS, pointing to the document.

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Now, she's stuck in bureaucratic limbo, still waiting for clarity and fearing what's next. "I feel scared," she said. "Am I going to have to sell my house?"

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While Ruth's case is deeply personal, it points to a broader question: how do these overpayments happen at all—and why are some being discovered so long after the fact?

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Social Security has a payment accuracy rate of over 99%, with only 0.3% of benefit payments considered improper. That statistic—backed by government-reported data—suggests most payments are accurate. But when something does go wrong, it's often due to what advocates and policy experts say are administrative delays, outdated systems, or communication breakdowns inside the SSA.

In cases like Ruth's, the system may have failed to properly flag her husband's return to work, despite his reported efforts to notify the agency. It's a scenario that legal aid groups say happens more often than the public realizes—not because of fraud, but because of bureaucracy.

And while the mistake occurred years ago, the collection effort is still legally sound. The SSA has specific timeframes to determine overpayments:

• Title II (Social Security retirement, survivors, disability): The SSA generally has four years to reopen or revise a previous benefits decision.
• Supplemental Security Income: The timeframe is two years.

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These periods are outlined in SSA regulations and are intended to limit the window for reassessing benefit determinations.

However, once an overpayment is identified within these timeframes, the SSA can pursue recovery indefinitely. There is no statute of limitations on collecting overpayments, meaning the agency can seek repayment years, even decades, later. This policy has led to situations where beneficiaries are notified of overpayments long after the fact, as highlighted in a CBS News report. 

The SSA provides an appeal process, waiver options, and payment plans—but in many cases, the burden is on beneficiaries to prove they're not at fault.

For Ruth, the paperwork, confusion, and stress keep piling up. She's grieving, retired, and now staring down a bill that she and her husband tried to prevent from the start.

And she's not the only one asking: if he called "constantly," why is she the one being left to clean it up?

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