Pretty sure they can take legal action. They can get a court order if they pursue it that far. Not sure if they can touch SSI especially if you can show you need all of it to pay bills. Credit card companies can do it too. The IRS can damn sure do it. They do whatever the hell they want. I filed my 2008 tax return. I owed them money but I never got a letter or heard a word about it. Four years later they send me a letter saying they never got it but they got the 200 buck check that was in the same envelope and didn't know what to do with it. So I send them the return again after they lost the flipping thing and waited four years to tell me. I wait to hear from then again about how I owe them money. Nothing....no letter no nothing. Then I find out they took the last 250 bucks i had out of my bank account. They sent letters to an address I had ten freaking years ago even though they had my current address. the bank charged me 150 bucks to pay them with my money..........i gotta go. finish the story later.