As per a statement issued by the National Senior Citizens Law Center on Tuesday, US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken in California approved a preliminary $500 million settlement between the Social Security Administration and the several plaintiffs whose benefits were "unlawfully" withheld or denied.

The National Senior Citizens Law Center is one of the organizations that represented the several thousand poor, elderly and disabled beneficiaries in the class-order lawsuit against the Social Security Administration.

The settlement will see over 200,000 people - whose benefits had been unfairly suspended on unsubstantiated suspicions that they were fleeing prosecution - getting their benefits reinstated and receiving back payments. It was a faulty computer process that traced the beneficiaries who allegedly had arrest warrants issued against them.

Commenting on the unjust suspensions, which had been ordered in cases of mistaken identity or outstanding warrants for offenses like bounced checks or traffic violations, a law center attorney Gerald McIntyre said: "The vast majority of class members were not fleeing at all. Many of them never knew that criminal charges were pending against them, let alone that a warrant had been issued."

Over and above the $500 million settlement, negotiated between the federal government and legal advocacy groups, the individuals whose benefits had been denied during the 2000-2006 period will get a chance to re-establish their eligibility for receiving payments.