Kat Conner and Jim Lehfeldt of Palm Beach Gardens recently received a life-changing letter from the Social Security Administration.
“Basically what it says is that they overpaid me a little bit over $81,000,” Conner said.
The Social Security Administration says the overpayments happened over the course of four years. The agency informed the couple that their monthly disability payments will be on hold, along with their retirement benefits, until the money is paid back.
“First, we tried calling Social Security. That was a nightmare — just on hold and you get passed and passed and passed,” Conner said. “Then, we went to Social Security on Clematis (Street) and spoke with somebody [who] said, basically, he didn’t have access to all of our records.”
Conner said she then decided to deplete one of her retirement accounts to start repaying the money.
Conner and Lehfeldt are not the first couple to be stuck with a large payment to the Social Security Administration. Scripps News West Palm Beach shared the story of Gloria and Antonio Castro earlier this month.