Jun 18, 2017

"I've Never Had Such A Hard Time Giving Back Money"

     From KUTV:
Sue Brandon got a huge surprise when she checked her bank account one day. She had received a Social Security deposit of $13,098.
The massive amount is a far cry from the $4 per month increase that the Social Security Administration had told her she would be getting after her husband passed away.
“I called them and said, ‘Hey, something's wrong because there's no way you can owe me this $13,000,’” she said. ...
Brandon said she called the Social Security office over and over again but was repeatedly old they couldn’t get to the bottom of it.
The Brandon said one of the SSA employees snapped at her: “I don't know what to tell you anymore. Call your congressman.” ...
"I've never had such a hard time giving back money,” she said. ...
      I think I've posted before about the problem I and other attorneys sometimes have when an attorney fee is overpaid. We issue a check refunding the money to Social Security but the agency immediately issues another check in the same amount. I recently talked with another attorney who was refunding the same fee overpayment for the fourth time!

3 comments:

Tim said...

Oh, if ONLY I had THIS problem! Please SSA, direct all overpayments to...

Anonymous said...

My twin boys were born very early and met a listing. There is some special exception that waives SsI resource factors for this but they only give $30 a month. I applied for Medicaid which also waived income factors and they made me apply for Ssi as I still had thousands after my health insurance. After the boys left the hospital they should not have had the special income rules anymore and thus my 30 A month should have stopped. I called multiple times to tell them this and I kept getting a check. It is a lot of work to give money back or to have them stop giving you money.

And in a sign of the disaster that is ssa/dds one kid was approved right away as it was urgent case. The other kid, dds called a few times for more evidence but then the case literally disappeared never heard anything either way.

Dina Padilla said...

Here's what I see as part of the problem. There are too many different departments and one employee doesn't know what the other does. Each department only has limited access to specific data. Either that or the SSA employees are flat out lying about what they do know or have access to.

The employees who work with workers comp and the SSA set asides are working separately as well. I know that when I worked for a HMO. each department was set up to not know anything other than what was to be done in the dept they we're in. I believe too that as you go up the ladder that it is then you do get more access to more info.

The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing unless you are in management and those management employees are hand picked no matter who applies for the job to keep the info from flowing out to better serve those who apply for SSA/Medicare benefits.

It is also a great way to embezzle money.

AND if I'm all wrong on this I'd like to know. because in the workers comp/SSA dept, there is only one person assigned to X AMOUNT OF CASES AND they get to make the decisions on what a SSA recipient will receive and when. That certainly has been the case here in Sacramento and L.A. CA.
With the amount of embezzlement that has gone on would make ERIC CONN look like a petty thief.
Trying to get someone in the SSA to even acknowledgement of the theft we know about , well it's like nailing jello to a wall. and the SSA/WC & maybe other depts and those involved all have a lot to answer for.