Since Paula Walton’s husband Max died in June 2024 from liver cancer, she’s been taking care of their 25-year-old son David, who has autism, at their shared home in Madison.
She makes him sandwiches with equal amounts of mayonnaise on each bread slice. She makes sure the water temperature is perfect for his showers. The two of them have their disagreements, like every mother and son, but they’re happy.
The last few months have put that happiness to the test, though.
To pay the bills, the pair depends on survivor benefits that Social Security has owed them since Max Walton’s death. But in February, Paula Walton, who is 56, got a letter in the mail saying she hadn’t received the survivor benefits for her son in a year and that hers were now going to be cut. The Social Security Administration’s reason?
In a subsequent phone call, a member of the agency claimed her son had been in a Texas prison for a year, according to Walton.
“I said, ‘He was not in prison. He’s been with me the entire time. He’s too autistic to leave my side,’” Walton said.
The Social Security Administration finally seems to have corrected things this week, with a staffer telling Walton during an in-person meeting at its office in Augusta on Monday that the mistake was due to a clerical error, according to Walton. Now, she’s received her backpay from the year without her son’s benefits.
But getting to that point has been an exercise in stress and frustration. The process to correct the error took months, and without the benefits, Walton had to shut off her internet and her phone, she said. Until Wednesday night, she worried she was going to lose her house.
Walton has provided the Bangor Daily News with copies of letters the Social Security Administration sent her, including the one informing her about the benefits being cut. She provided other details about her case during an interview.
The Social Security Administration did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear if the error that deprived the Waltons of their benefits was part of a larger issue across the Social Security Administration, but their case has demonstrated how even seemingly small clerical mistakes can harm the families who depend on those funds. It also offers a preview of the pitfalls that could result from the Trump administration’s plans to downsize the agency amid unfounded claims that it’s rife with fraud.
In February, the agency announced it would cut 7,000 workers, or 12 percent of its staff. It also made plans to shutter six out of 10 regional offices. Part of the reason, according to the White House, is to decrease trillions of dollars of “improper payments” the agency has sent.
For Paula Walton, the process to get her benefits back has been arduous. Because she was dealing with her husband’s death, she didn’t notice that the money allotted to her son wasn’t being included in her monthly checks until she received the letter in February. The letter told her David Walton’s benefits had been taken away because she was not taking care of him.
Three different phone calls to the Social Security Administration resulted in three different justifications by its staff, Paula Walton said. One representative told her her son was receiving $500 a month. Another told her his benefits ended in June of last year. Still another told her his benefits ended in May of last year.
Before this week, the last check Walton received from Social Security came in April. It did not leave her with enough money to pay her May expenses, and she hasn’t been able to get her ADHD medication. She had to turn off her internet and phone, though her two other adult children helped get the internet back on.
“I’m lucky I have kids who are willing to step in and help, but it’s not their responsibility,” Walton said.
The Social Security benefits are the family’s only income. Walton takes care of her son throughout the day. When the family started receiving Social Security, they had to give up their son’s own disability benefits, since they could only collect one at a time.
Walton made a final appointment with the Social Security Administration on Monday to get everything settled, she said. She went in preparing for the worst.
“[David] said, ‘I know you’re having a hard time, because I can see you’re struggling to try. And when you struggle to try, that hurts me,’” Walton said, recalling a conversation with her son.
The representative admitted the clerical error, then told Walton she may get her benefits back, as well as backpay for the year that David Walton didn’t receive benefits.
While that was something of a relief, she was thrown for one more loop when she got home and found a letter in the mail. It claimed that she owed the Social Security Administration $27,000 for the money it paid her while it thought her son was incarcerated, according to a copy of the letter that she shared with the BDN.
However, the agency now seems to have corrected its mistakes. On Wednesday night, Walton discovered $21,000 had been deposited into her bank account.
She said she’s glad she will be able to keep her house and continue taking care of her son, but thinks the only reason she was able to resolve the issue was because she fought with the agency — something that other vulnerable families might have a harder time doing in a similar situation.
“For me to still be having this much problems, and for them to not be telling me why they can’t give me a date of when I’ll get even May’s money,” Walton said. “I mean, we can discuss the overpayment. That’s fine. You can give me a date for that, but May’s money, which I was owed the first of the month, why can’t you kick some butts and get that deposited? All it takes is clicks of buttons.”
