Every month, a federal benefits program sends checks to some of the poorest disabled and elderly Americans. But then, months or years later, this program tells them that there’s been some mistake and that they need to pay back the money. Often, that means tens of thousands of dollars that these people don’t have because they are so poor. Now, for the first time, the Social Security Administration, which runs the program, is conceding that it is often at fault.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240607120422/https://www.npr.org/2024/06/06/nx-s1-4593994/a-mother-has-been-able-to-care-for-her-son-with-ssi-but-the-program-also-limits-them