Documenting expenses to contest treasury offset

May 31, 2019 4:20 PM

My SSDI is being garnished 15% a month because of student loans. I have the form to request a review because of hardship, and I have the requested documentation of my expenses. However, I have some questions about health-related expenses, and I'd love to hear from someone who has personal or professional experience with something similar.

Here's the core of my question: My mail to them will include a form in which I give amounts of expenses and also copies of bills.

The form asks for monthly expenses. My copays vary from month to month--I have several doctors I see, plus therapy, plus prescriptions. Also, the billing statements I have include unpaid bills from months back as well as the new monthly expenses.

I'm hesitant to average because the averages would not be reflected in the paperwork and also I don't know how far back to go. But if I go through the billing statements and only add up the expenses from the last month, those numbers also wouldn't be immediately evident based on the larger bills. But is it cheating if I just enter the whole amount?

Or will they go through this stuff so thoroughly that any of these answers is acceptable?

If you answer, please let me know if you've had experience with similar things or are just speculating. I'm losing 15% of a very low income, and I need to get this form done accurately right away.

posted by mermaidcafe to Work & Money (8 answers total)

As a side note, if your main source of income is the notoriously stingy SSDI, you should be on an income-driven repayment plan if you're not already. (I assume these loans are all federal because private lenders can't garnish your SSDI.)
posted by praemunire at 4:37 PM on May 31, 2019

Response by poster: you should be on an income-driven repayment plan if you're not already.

*Yes, sorry forgot to mention my loans are currently in default. I set up a repayment plan to pay very little each month. However, the garnishing will continue for five more months until I'm "established" unless I prove hardship.
posted by mermaidcafe at 4:42 PM on May 31, 2019

This is speculation ...
I would create a worksheet where you list your health related expenses, itemized bill by bill for as many months as makes sense and calculate the average. Include the worksheet along with all the underlying bills. Put the average on the monthly total. That way the average WILL be reflected in the paperwork.
posted by metahawk at 6:45 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

I had success getting my student loans discharged due to being permanently disabled even though I was turned down for SSDI on the basis of not being disabled enough. Please memail me if you would like to talk about this possibility—it was FAR easier than any other disability-related paperwork I’ve done.

I have not done *this* process, but I have applied for disability. I believe in more documentation. Send as much information as you have to help explain your circumstances. Attach additional sheets with explanations if you need to, but I think it’s to your advantage to go back several months and present a full picture of your circumstances.
posted by epj at 7:03 PM on May 31, 2019 [3 favorites]

I had my loans discharged through TPD as well, but they were not in default at the time. If I remember correctly, being on SSDI greatly simplified the process and my loans were fairly quickly placed into some sort of forbarance until review.

I've had to prove medical expenses before, specifically, spend-downs and the calculation for food-stamps. For this, unpaid bills count, as an expense for the month the service occurred in.
It's a pain, but what I did was:

• pick a date range (3mo, 6mo) to document expenses.
• log-in insurance provider & grab their summaries of charges/service dates for the time period requested.
• create a list for each month, showing the service dates/expense incurred.
• use a second sheet to show total expenses per month. (Month/Total) & use that to create an average.
• group my paper bills by service type (hospital,provider, procedure, whatever makes most sense)
• map/match each bill to service date (bc medicaid requires this to 'claim' an expense) - or don't (bc the the two lists above plus "proving you have the goods" (ie. a copy of a pile of bills) should be enough under "documenting expenses")
• make it pretty, easy to read (or don't, see above) and submit

I've used the above process several times for myself and elderly relatives and have a more detailed flow with rough templates and scripts that I've been meaning to write up for awhile now, so feel free to memail me if you need more details/examples.
posted by bindr at 5:53 AM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Sorry, I assumed you had already looked into TPD! If your next review was scheduled for 5 to 7 years from your initial disability determination, you should probably qualify. I strongly encourage you to apply for it if you qualify. One of the few positive changes in the tax code was to make such a discharge non-taxable.

God, Ed are such jerks. If you told them you were on SSDI, they or your servicer should have sent you information on TPD.
posted by praemunire at 10:27 AM on June 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I’ve already looked into TPD, and not an option. I’m doing this.
posted by mermaidcafe at 7:13 AM on June 3, 2019

Response by poster: Also, this Is the super low-rent form. Not a spreadsheet situation. Whatever I attach, I have to complete this form too.


I’m going to just specify here what the number refers to, treating it as unit of measurement.
posted by mermaidcafe at 7:21 AM on June 3, 2019