Press Release: Thousands in Bay Area Can Now Receive Once-Denied Social Security Benefits
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NSCLC and other public interest attorneys held a press briefing today in San Francisco to spotlight the need to find the many people in the Bay Area and nationally who have been wrongfully refused Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Two California seniors who had been refused benefits shared their stories at the briefing. Thousands of vulnerable older adults and people with disabilities - disproportionately from ethnic groups - are now eligible again for both Social Security and SSI benefits. Many will receive past benefits from $10,000-$40,000 - due to a successful NSCLC-led class action lawsuit (Martinez vs. Astrue) against the Social Security Administration (SSA). The event was held at New America Media (NAM) offices in San Francisco.
MEDIA RELEASE
Contact: Paul Kleyman, Phone: (415) 503-4170 ext. 133
E-mail: pkleyman@newamericamedia.org
Scott L. Parkin, Phone: (202) 683-1996/
Cell (703) 975-1769, E-Mail: sparkin@nsclc.org
Thousands in Bay Area Can Now Receive Once-Denied Social Security Benefits
Class Action Lawsuit to Return Over $700 Million to Wrongly Cut Off
Ethnic Groups Disproportionately Affected
SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2010 –Thousands of vulnerable elders and people with disabilities—disproportionately from ethnic groups--can now become eligible again for wrongly denied Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Many will receive past benefits from $10,000-$40,000—due to a class action lawsuit against the Social Security Administration (SSA).
In May SSA calculated the government owed almost $700 million nationally to people who had been wrongfully refused their benefits.
Leading public-interest attorneys involved with the federal case held a briefing, Tuesday, July 27, at New America Media (NAM) in San Francisco.
Rosa Martinez, 53, of Redwood City, Calif., who fought this injustice, was the lead plaintiff in the landmark case, Martinez v. Astrue, spoke at the briefing. She is among the more than 200,000 vulnerable individuals whose Social Security and related assistance was erroneously terminated and can now be reinstated.
The briefing focused on alerting the public to what affected individuals must do to recover lost benefits or start receiving future aid.
In the case, the agency, headed by Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, agreed in a Federal District Court settlement last Fall in Oakland to repay people whose Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Special Veterans Benefits were withheld because their names appeared in an arrest-warrant database.
Often the warrants involved traffic or minor infractions, and sometimes were for completely different people with the same name as someone with a past warrant. The settlement will not help those who were denied benefits because they were convicted and sentenced for a crime and violated their probation or parole or who have an outstanding warrant for flight or escape.
“Thousands of people in the Bay Area were illegally deprived of Social Security and SSI benefits,” said Gerald A. McIntyre, lead attorney in the case for the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC), with offices in Oakland, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. “Now they have the opportunity to receive enough money in back benefits to get decent housing and to make real changes in their lives.”
McIntyre added, “The prior policy undermined the purpose of SSA programs, which are designed to provide a basic level of support for our most vulnerable citizens. It was also inconsistent with other important national objectives, such as the prevention of homelessness.” Not only did individuals face “disastrous” consequences, he said, such as loss of health care, but also states, localities and charities were forced to fill the humanitarian gap.
Affected people, many of them difficult to reach, must know they have to contact Social Security for reinstatement or denied aid. The briefing included representatives of legal assistance organizations that have worked on the issue in the Bay Area. They can provide individual assistance to thousands of low-income seniors and disabled individuals in the Bay Area who lost benefits unjustly.
Nationally, the federal court finding will assist 200,000-300,000 people, who were wrongfully denied benefits after Jan. 1, 2007, or who in some cases were refused assistance from 2000-2006. In some circumstances people have only a limited time to become eligible again.
SSA launched the arrest-warrant program for SSI in 1996, and it extended to Social Security disability and old-age benefits in 2005. The program is supposed to halt payments to people regarded as “fleeing to avoid prosecution.” However, SSA applied it on the basis of an outstanding warrant alone, whether or not a person knew charges had been filed, according to McIntyre. Individuals affected were almost always those with minor offenses or offenses from many years ago, McIntyre said.
One Florida plaintiff, he said, had a Texas warrant he didn’t know about because of a bounced $300 check he’d written years ago. The man’s warrant was classified as a felony instead of a misdemeanor because the state had not updated the old law to account for decades of inflation.
NSCLC staff attorney Anna Rich explained that the Martinez-case settlement applies a sensible definition to the phrase “fleeing to avoid prosecution.” Previously, Social Security considered elders and those with disabilities to be “fleeing” under the law even if they were unaware they had a warrant or if the law enforcement agency involved was uninterested in arresting or prosecuting them for generally minor infractions.
In the settlement agreement, SSA agreed to reinstate people such as Martinez. The agency stopped her disability benefits in 2008, claiming that her name and birth date matched another Rosa Martinez—a woman eight inches taller and who had a 1980 drug warrant in Miami. The California Martinez has never visited Miami.
At the July 27 briefing in San Francisco, attorneys will explain what affected people need to do to obtain their past benefits and to begin receiving future help. In some cases those eligible need to take action before certain deadlines.
The media briefing was made possible with support from: East Bay Community Foundation, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, Public Welfare Foundation, van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation, Y & H Soda Foundation.
In the Bay Area, individuals can call their local legal aid organization for assistance. Also, those ages 60 or older can contact their local area agency on aging for a free referral for legal services assistance. For a complete state list of agencies on aging, visit the California Department of Aging website: http://www.aging.ca.gov/local_aaa/AAA_listing.asp.
To learn more about the class action settlement, visit www.nsclc.org/areas/social-security-ssi/Martinez-Settlement. Or visit the Social Security website at www.ssa.gov/martinezsettlement.
Press Release (PDF)
SF Martinez Briefing Participants
Bay Area Martinez Referral List
