He might not have been meaning to scam them in order to have been overpaid. Food Stamp eligibility/benefit calculation rules are mind-bogglingly complex and one of the rules is that whether an overpayment is caused by the client or the agency, the client is liable to pay it back. For people with ongoing food stamp cases, the only difference is that if the client caused the overpayment either advertently or inadvertently 10% of future benefits are docked, and if the agency caused it only 5% of future benefits are withheld. $85 is nothing compared to some of the huge overpayments I've seen. I can't imagine that they'd have a problem w/you paying it back for him.

Disclaimer: although the Food Stamp program is a federal program, states do have some small latitude to tweak the rules, so all my knowledge is based on how the program is administered in California.

I'm glad you've got experienced advocatish-type people working w/you towards getting Elmer on SSI. So often the people who need it most can't get on because they can't negotiate all the bureaucratic obstacles. Likewise, I'm very glad he's also got someone like you on his side.