In a bid to recover $5.8 million from 850 recipients of disaster aid extended to victims of superstorm Sandy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sent letters clawing back the money.

Some of those who got the letter are elderly and disabled residents who definitely have no financial capacity to repay four-digit figures. FEMA is running after them in the belief that millions of assistance payments got into the hand of ineligible households.

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Among those considered ineligible are 35 residents of assisted-living facilities in Queens, New York, where Belle Harbor Manor is found. The 35 received a total of $105,598 to cover expenses for temporary shelter and destroyed belongings.

At least 12 are Belle Harbor Manor residents who were evacuated when Sandy hit the state and brought to a large evacuation center in a Brooklyn armory. Later, they were transferred to a hotel in a sleazy community with high crime rate, which meant most of them had to stay in the hotel after dark.

The next move was to a partially abandoned psychiatric hospital which served as a halfway house.

The trauma of surviving the superstorm, the stress of constant transfers and degenerative ailments associated with old age caused some of them to suffer from mild mental illnesses.

Sixty-one-year old Robert Rosenberg, one of the Belle Harbor Manor residents given by FEMA to repay $2,486 or appeal, told the Washington Post that they cannot shell out that amount because their incomes are fixed.

According to Rosenberg, who suffers from a spinal disability plus other chronic ailments, he used the assistance money for food and clothing since these two items were in short supply after Catergory 3 Hurricane Sandy battered the U.S. in 2012 and killed 285 people.

He recalled that FEMA employees urged them while they were temporarily sheltered at the armory to apply for aid, but they were never told that the assistance is only for housing. Rosenberg recalled that they even asked the FEMA workers if the aid is a loan and should be repaid back, that it was a gift from U.S. President Barack Obama.

He lamented the confusion arising from the lack of sufficient information provided by FEMA during the application stage.

"If I wasn't eligible, then why give it to me in the first place?.." Rosenberg said."It's not like we lied on the application."

The MFY Legal Services, a legal aid group, has offered the Belle Harbor Manor residents to file an appeal. MFY lawyer Nahid Sorroshyan said FEMA's move to have the elderly and disabled repay the given aid was unjust and unbearable.

"Our position is that it would be an unbearable financial hardship and unjust" for FEMA to require them to repay the aid, said Sorroshyan.

FEMA explained the reason behind the demand letters but did not tackle the unique situation of the elderly and disable aid recipients.

Fox News quoted the agency's spokesperson, Rafael Lemaitre, in a statement which only expressed FEMA's commitment to work with the applicants to help them understand their options for repaying the debt.

TagsFEMA, superstorm sandy, Disabled, elderly, Sandy aid, aid payment