Survivor Benefit Overpayment as a Minor

TLDR; My mother (representative payee) had control of survivor benefit after my dad passed away when I was 16. SSA claimed there is an overpayment and eventually collected the debt from my tax return this year. I was a minor and unaware of any stipulations or overpayment reasons and didn't have control of the money.

Hello everyone. I’m looking for advice or experiences from anyone who has dealt with a Social Security survivor benefit overpayment that happened while they were a minor.

My dad died in April 2021 when I was 16. He and my mother were not ever married and hadn't been together since I was very young. I was graduated from high school early and working full time to support myself financially. I lived with my mother but paid her rent while I lived in the basement. We applied for Social Security survivor benefits from my dad's passing around June. Obviously since I was a minor, my mom was the representative payee and controlled the account. Since I was full time working and supporting myself, she let me have a debit card for a while, but only used it for gas for my car and I wanted to use it to pay for my braces because she would never let me get them. The verbal agreement was it was my money to spend, not hers, since I was supporting myself full time. She didn't buy me anything. Rent was paid to her by me even before this for household expenses like power and water.

In Jan 2022, my mom told me I could no longer use the account because she was using the money for bills. And wanted to wait to give me the rest because she didn't know how much they would owe on taxes. She told me she would give me the remaining money when I turned 18, which was in June 2022, but that never happened. She's always been shady and selfish but that's not really important. I tried to ask multiple times to see account statements, etc, for the rest of my money but she has refused. She said I spent it all (I definitely did not. The entire benefit was around 15k and I did not spend more than 3k if that) and the rest was used for the income tax they had to pay on it.

I moved out at 17, was working full-time, and supporting myself. Last year in August 2025, I received a notice that I had been overpaid about $3,000 because of my earnings while receiving benefits. I called my mom because I had no idea about any of this. Other than the little bit of time I had access to a debit card for gas, she did not let me know any information about the benefit or requirements or anything. I called her about the letter and she said she would handle it and call them. She assured me she would take care of it. This year, in March 2026, I found out she did not and my tax refund was taken to repay the debt. She told me she would personally repay me the $3000 they took. I have texts that prove this.

It's now August and she is IGNORING me. Like won't answer calls or texts. I'm so tired of this.

Today I called SSA and was told I may be able to appeal because I was a minor at the time and had a representative payee controlling the benefits. I've already submitted Form SSA-561. SSA also told me they can't really investigate what happened to the entire survivor benefit amount based only on my allegations.

Anyways, a few questions:

• Has anyone successfully appealed an overpayment that occurred while they were a minor with a representative payee?
• How long did it take to get a decision after filing SSA-561?

Any experiences or advice would be appreciated.