ACTION 9: Man Billed For Payments From Social Security After He Cancelled

A disabled man in Albemarle was billed for Social Security payments he tried to cancel.

Tommy Thompson, 41 was born with a handicap.

"I only have a partial arm this side and just a short nub on this side,” he said.

Six years ago he started receiving $700 a month Social Security disability payments. But he got a job teaching two years ago and notified social to stop payments.

"I filled out the paperwork to stop my social security benefits and at that time I thought it was taken care of,” he said.

But Social Security told him by law the payments had to continue for nine months in case the job didn't work out. Then in December SSA told him they'd overpaid him $192.

"I went to my local administration and she said I didn't owe that,” he said.

But then four months later, he got another letter from Social Security saying they overpaid him again, this time $722. That's when he called and talked to someone at SSA.

“The gentleman I spoke to said it was not my fault,” he said.

Then Thompson said SSA told him he had to fill out a detailed eight page report showing the overpayment wasn't his fault, or repay the money. But he felt none of it was fair.

"I thought it was ridiculous because I had done everything on my end to stop the Social Security benefits,” he said.

Action 9 sent the local Social Security administration office. It did not respond but then called Thompson to tell him it was their mistake and he didn't have to repay the $722 .