Disabled Virginia woman faces eviction as Social Security continues to hold money it says she qualified for

PRTINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. -- A Prince George woman with a rare heart condition has been waiting nearly four years for her Social Security disability benefits.

"It's been very stressful, and I've been struggling. I had to get a pacemaker in 2021," Bobbi Perez explained. "The pacemaker was the only cure according to what my heart doctors told me, so I pretty much had to get it."

Perez said she has sleep apnea because of the condition.

"I also have arthritis, and degenerative disk disease. I've had a knee replacement," Perez said. "My shoulder was just recently replaced, because of severe damage to that. It's hard sometimes for me to do things because of my conditions."

The former office receptionist and warehouse worker was denied disability benefits from the Social Security Administration in 2021, reapplied the next year, and then waited, and waited, without any answers.

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"My case had gotten transferred to many different locations," Perez said. "At one point it was up near Roanoke or Lynchburg. Then it was in Richmond at one time. It was it was back in Petersburg."

Last summer, as a last resort, she emailed CBS 6. So I contacted the Richmond spokesperson for the SSA to ask about Perez's case.

Someone from the SSA then called Perez.

"After I first reached out to you all, maybe about a month later, I received a letter saying I was approved for disability," Perez said.

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While that early December letter told Perez she was due more than $20,000 for two years of disability back pay, she still has not seen a dime of it nearly two months later.

"My lawyer got paid out of my back pay, and the Social Security office has been paid [their $130 service fee] from it," said Perez. "I still haven't been paid. No one told me."

Her multiple calls and visits to her local SSA office in Petersburg have yielded no answers. For Perez the clocking is ticking- namely paying the several months of back rent she owes her very patient landlord. And a terrifying deadline is looming.

"I actually have an eviction court date coming up on the 28th, and if I don't pay my rent, I'm going to get locked out of here," she said. "They gave me chances. I owe late fees, I owe everything. And if I don't pay it, then I have nowhere to go. And it's cold outside."

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Then Perez mentioned that a specific caseworker at the Petersburg office needed to sign off on her case, even though it would seem settled, since the SSA approved it seven weeks ago.

I recognized that employee's name as the same person that an earlier disability claimant had told me had been holding up his claim.

Since Perez had that employee's office number, we called.

After several minutes of waiting through various messages from the SSA and other voicemail options, I left a message for that caseworker, saying, "She was told to contact you to find out whether or not someone at the Petersburg office needs to sign off on what the SSA has already determined."

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I have not heard back from her.

With time running out, Perez says she's desperately hoping the SSA can somehow make good on what she was promised so long ago.

"I just really hope whoever is going through this process, that has a disability or whatever, doesn't have to go through what I went through because this has been a very hard, terrible experience," said Perez. "I've been working on the books since I was 15 years old. I'm in my 50's now, and I shouldn't have to fight for what I've worked for this hard."

Perez told me that late Thursday night someone from the SSA reached out to her saying she would be paid within five days.

But it's it unclear whether that will be in time for her to avoid eviction.

So just how long is the SSA supposed to hold on to disability funds after paying a claimant's attorneys and itself?

A Richmond spokesperson has not responded to my multiple inquiries.

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