Q&As about Supplemental Security Income Information from Social Security Administration

Question

I received a letter that I have an overpayment. What should I do? (B.

Kelly, Pinecrest)

ANSWER

Don’t spend the extra money! Social Security will send you an overpayment notice with a request to repay the amount within 30 days.

If you receive SSDI payments, Social Security will withhold the full amount of your benefit each month (unless you request a lesser withholding amount). If you receive SSI, Social Security will withhold 10% of the federal benefit rate each month to recover the overpayment.

If you receive a monthly benefit payment and receive an overpayment notice, visit www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-overpay-ussi. htm for information on how Social Security will ask you to pay it back.

If you don’t agree you’ve been overpaid, or if the amount of the overpayment is incorrect, you may appeal using Form SSA-561. State why you think you haven’t been overpaid or why the amount is incorrect. Submit your appeal in writing within 60 days.

Another option is filing Form SSA-632, Request for Waiver of Overpayment Recovery, to explain why you shouldn’t have to pay back the overpayment. There is no time limit for filing for a waiver, but you must prove that the overpayment wasn’t your fault and that paying the money back would cause you financial hardship or be unfair.

(For appeals and waivers, you may need to supply Social Security with proof of income and expenses and meet with Social Security personnel.)

Movie Preview: “A Tourist’s Guide to Love”

BY RANDAL C. HILL

Actress Rachael Lee Cook is candid about what drew her to her movie character in “A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” a new Netflix romcom. “I have experienced too many breakups in my own life. The idea of restarting your life is a topic that all too many of us are forced to reckon with.”

Cook is Amanda Riley, a travel executive on the receiving end of an unexpected breakup. To rid herself of her angst she travels undercover on a group tour to learn about the booming tourist industry in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, Amanda meets the charismatic, freewheeling tour guide Sinh, portrayed by Scott Ly (“Criminal Minds,” “FBI’s Most Wanted”). Sinh shows Amanda and her fellow travelers that adventure – and love— can be found if one is willing to veer off the beaten path.

Amanda arrives just in time for Tet, the Lunar New Year celebration. Weaving the holiday into the plot was a way for VietnameseAmerican screenwriter Eirene Tran Donohue (“Girls’ Night Out”) to highlight some of her traditions. “Tet focuses on new beginnings,” Donohue explains. “Releasing the past year and stepping into a new one. Opening yourself up to opportunity. Creating the life that you were meant to live.”

Ly was working as a personal trainer when he got the call to read opposite Cook and said yes without a second thought. “She’s the wave, I’m the surfer, and I let her kind of take me on the ride,” he said.

“A Tourist’s Guide to Love” is the first Netflix film shot entirely on location in Vietnam. “It’s insanely beautiful, and the landscape is so incredibly diverse,” says Cook.

Donohue digs a bit deeper. “There are almost no American movies set in Vietnam that aren’t about the trauma of war,” she says. “It was really important to tell a story about life there now, full of joy and love and celebration. I wanted to change the conversation about Vietnam, to highlight it as a modern, thriving country whose stories are worthy of being told.”

The movie premieres April 27.