Social Security ADMITS their MISTAKE — Still NO Benefits

I am submitting this request to you for my wife Sharon after watching the segment on how seniors and retired citizens are having their SS held for errors created years ago.
How can our government expect seniors on a fixed income to survive without Social Security. We received a letter from Social Security indicating we need to pay almost 36,000 dollars because of overpayment.
The letter indicated that we had 30 days to pay in full or Social Security would garnish her monthly payment until June of 2025.
How does our government believe that they can take a large portion of a retired seniors monthly income without effecting the way of life we have adapted to based on this fixed income.
We went to our local Social Security office on October 3rd to meet with a SS representative in Elgin Illinois.
This lady looked at all our paperwork and told us that there was nothing wrong with what SS was asking for. She told us because my wife received a pension from the school she worked at for 22 years she was not eligible for the amount paid to her.
This did not make sense to us because the pension does not effect SS based on a agreement with the state of Illinois. My wife was not a teacher, she worked as a secretary.
The next day we went back to the local SS office with a letter from the pension company indicating that the state did in fact have an agreement as described.
This gentleman’s name was Mr. Wilson. He looked at our paperwork and his computer and asked my wife what other pension she had. We indicated no other pension. This question was asked several times by Mr. Wilson during that visit. He told us this is wrong there is a mistake.
He then told us he would call us in 2 days after he had time to investigate this mistake further. He never called.
We went back again and got another agent. Mr. Wilson we were told went on vacation for 2 weeks.
This new agent reviewed the paperwork cross checked with her computer and said I will handle this.
For the next hour we sat while this agent asked questions and filled out forms for my wife to sign. She told us this is a mistake you never had a second pension and that she would submit the paperwork “Request For Reconsideration”
To date we have not gotten any response from “The Great Lakes Program Service Center”
This is the arm of SS that reviews millions of files and determines who should be flagged based on a wide and random set of criteria not going deep into the specific details of the case.
This started on October 3rd and it is now November 14th and I have heard nothing 41 days later. We are now told it could be up to 60 days, 20 more days to go.
We call the customer service information number 3 times a week and it is always the same response “Your Case Is Being Reviewed” We ask can you give us additional information and the answer is always the same “NO” On may last call on November 20th. the representative told me that if I did not get an answer by December 8th which is the end of the 60 day period they would send a request for update on status and that could take another 30 days. If still no response another urgent request for update would be sent and this could take up to another 14 days. When is this enough.
Not only are we not getting our Social Security benefits but we now need to pay an additional 164.00 dollars a month to Medicare out of pocket every month until June of 2025.
My wife has been retired for 10 years and we have fashioned our life based on the fixed income we are entitled to. Our savings will not last until we get our benefits back so we are forced to change our life style dramatically.
In summary I do not understand how the government can after all these years decide they made a mistake and expect us to pay for their mistake.
When my wife applied for Social Security we answered all questions asked and never provided false information.
If the agent that interview my wife did not ask all questions necessary it is not our fault.
I can understand catching a mistake after 6 Months but not 10 years later.
Based on your previous report on this subject that is effecting thousands of retired seniors we ask for any assistance or guidance you can provide to get to the bottom of this travesty. My overall health is being affected by the stress this is causing and still no answers. I hope that this along with the thousands of other seniors letters will get congress to act on our behalf.