If you or a loved one has a visual impairment and receives some form of Social Security benefit (which includes SSDI and SSI), or if you have a visual impairment and serve as a representative payee for someone who receives a Social Security benefit, a pending class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco may affect you.

The lawsuit, authorized by the federal court in September, alleges that the Social Security Administration (SSA) violates the rights of people with visual impairments by sending official communications in formats that they cannot read. Over the years, many people with visual impairments have complained that they miss out on important information about their benefits because they are unable to read the typical Social Security notices.

The lawsuit claims that a federal law, called the Rehabilitation Act, requires the SSA to provide notices in alternate formats to people with visual impairments. Several proposals are included in the lawsuit, including sending notices in Braille, by e-mail, or on audio tape. The case is scheduled to go to trial in the spring.

If you are interested in learning more about the case, and how it may affect you or your patients/clients please contact our office.

The Social Security Administration’s Inspector General concludes in a recent report that many banks are violating federal law by garnishing accounts that receive electronic deposits of Social Security benefits.  The practice could imperil millions of low-income seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Social Security.  When people owe money to credit card companies and other types of lenders, the creditors often use garnishment as a way of gaining partial payment of the debt. In order to garnish a debtor’s account, a creditor must go to court and obtain an order compelling the debtor’s bank to relinquish a set portion of the account, often on a monthly basis in accordance with the debtor’s deposits.  However, federal law prohibits garnishment of accounts receiving direct deposit of Social Security benefits, except in very specific situations, such to collect child support or unpaid federal taxes.  Unfortunately for many indebted seniors and people with disabilities, many state courts and most banks are unaware of the federal law regarding garnishment.  Therefore, courts routinely issue, and banks carry out, garnishments of accounts they have no business depleting. These accounts often hold the only source of income of a senior or person with a disability.. After they were alerted to the situation, Sens. Herb Kohl (D-WI), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) requested that the Social Security Administration’s Inspector General investigate.  In a recently released report, the Inspector General found that in a 12-month period, the 12 largest U.S. banks withheld more than $1 million from accounts holding government benefits and no other funds. The banks also withheld an additional $29 million from accounts holding benefits mixed with money from other sources.