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Social Security deal brings relief to Durant woman
DURANT — Roberta Hobbs, 75, uses an electric wheelchair to get around her house. A terminal lung condition causes her to use an oxygen tank 24 hours a day, and she has to rely on help for basic needs.
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Legal aid helped fight agency
Roberta Dobbs said the senior citizens program at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma put her in touch with capable legal assistance and turned the tide in her battle to win back her Social Security benefits. The organization helps eligible low-income and senior Oklahoma residents and has offices throughout the state. To find the nearest office, go to legalaidok.org or call the Oklahoma City location at 488-6825.
So Hobbs was surprised and frustrated when the Social Security Administration used a law aimed at fugitive criminals to suspend her benefits in 2006. By the time they were restored early this year, she had spent her life savings, lived in a vandalized house with no heat and lost her wheelchair to a thief.
"I just thought, I don’t know why I’m being punished like this,” Hobbs said Wednesday from her Durant home.
Hobbs and five others are the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2008 in California alleging the administration improperly suspended benefits. A federal judge on Tuesday gave tentative approval to a $500 million settlement that restores benefits to as many as 200,000 people, awards back benefits to 80,000 and mandates policy changes.
The law was intended to deny benefits to people fleeing prosecution, but later interpretations applied it to anyone with an outstanding warrant. Hobbs had a warrant stemming from a 2001 car wreck in California as she prepared to move to Oklahoma. She tried unsuccessfully to appeal the suspension of her benefits even after officials were notified the warrant was issued in error.
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