Concepcion Ceguerra Napoleon Ceguerra v. Secretary of Health & Human Services

Concepcion Ceguerra is an elderly, indigent woman who has been eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments under the Social Security Act since the early 1980s. When the government wrongfully terminated her benefits in 1982, she appealed. While that appeal was pending, Ceguerra lived in her son’s home. She agreed that she would repay her son for her share of the household expenses after she won her appeal and received a check retroactively restoring her benefits. When she won her appeal, however, the Secretary of Health and Human Services reduced her retroactive award by one-third, on the ground that she accepted room and board from her son while the appeal was pending. The district court upheld the Secretary’s decision. Because the administrative record demonstrates that Ceguerra agreed to repay her son for her share of the household expenses, we conclude that the Secre tary wrongfully reduced her retroactive benefits. We reverse.

I.

Concepcion Ceguerra is eighty years old and indigent. She receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments under the need-based provisions of Title XVI of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1381 -1383d. After she began receiving…