A 61-year-old HIV survivor has been ordered by the Social Security Office to pay $200,000 after his disability benefits were canceled.
Paul Aguilar, a 38-year-old HIV/AIDS survivor residing in San Francisco, recently received a letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) informing him of the change in circumstances.
“I’m an almost 62-year-old man living on a fixed income in the most expensive city in the United States to live in, and they’re cutting off my income. That’s frightening!” he told ABC7.
Why It Matters
The SSA, which provides benefits to around 70 million Americans, has seen several significant changes in recent weeks. These include workforce reductions, the closure of internal departments, and adjustments to telephone services.
These changes are part of the ongoing efforts of President Donald Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) taskforce, which is focused on reducing government inefficiencies and cutting spending, while also streamlining services. However, critics of the unofficial federal agency argue that these alterations have led to worsening SSA services.
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What To Know
Aguilar has been receiving disability benefits since 2005 as he is physically unable to work full-time. The letter informed him that he should not have received disability payments from 2014 to 2025.
“{A letter] informing me that there were concerns about my benefits and that they should have actually stopped December 2013, and that I now owed them over $200,000 and I had 30 days to pay that $200,000,” said Aguilar.
Aguilar, who is currently working with a lawyer and has contacted lawmakers, said that he had applied for a waiver and begun the process of appealing for reconsideration. He attributes the issue to the DOGE cuts and claims that his disability benefits, including Medicare, have been reduced as a result.
“The fact that they cut off my medical care scares me more than anything else because if I can’t access my medical care, it means I can’t access my medications, which means eventually my HIV virus disease will spiral out of control and I could be dead in a year or two,” said Aguilar.
Elon Musk, who heads DOGE, has been sued over cuts to the SSA.
A lawsuit filed in April in a Washington D.C. federal court involves five advocacy groups and seven Social Security beneficiaries. The plaintiffs argue that the SSA’s cuts have disproportionately harmed disability recipients and violated their constitutional rights.
Named in the suit are Musk, the SSA, its Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, DOGE, and its acting administrator Amy Gleason.
The SSA recently provided a update on what it referred to as “organizational restructuring,” which has resulted in a 12-percent reduction in its workforce. In February, the agency announced plans to reduce its staff from 57,000 to 50,000.
Millions of Americans who depend on government assistance were alarmed after receiving incorrect messages on the SSA website, stating they would no longer receive payments. The false notifications affected recipients of Supplemental Security Income and coincided with website disruptions linked to internal issues and unverified system changes, according to reports.
For nearly two days, the SSA’s website displayed messages stating that recipients were “currently not receiving payments,” according to The Washington Post.
What People Are Saying
Social Security Administration said in a statement: “Privacy laws preclude Social Security from discussing individual cases. We can share that the agency has reached out to Mr. Aguilar directly to address his concerns.”
Paul Aguilar told ABC7: “Given my disability, I wouldn’t be able to do a 40-hour a week job—there’s just no way, I’m physically unable to do so.”
California Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat, wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter: “If you thought Donald Trump and Elon Musk weren’t going to go after your Social Security—you thought wrong. They already are.”
Martin O’Malley, then SSA commissioner under the Joe Biden administration, said in March: “Everything they’re doing is driving this agency to system collapse. It will lead to interruptions in service, and that will ultimately cascade into more frequent system interruptions for the processing of claims, ultimately leading to system collapse and eventually the interruption of benefits.”
What Happens Next
The SSA continues to contend with internal challenges, such as staffing shortages and office closures, which watchdogs warn could lead to more errors and delays in assistance for recipients.