From Ann Brenoff writing for Huffpost:
For the past 12 months, your tax dollars have been going to pay Social Security benefits to a dead man. I know this because that dead man is my late husband.
No, I am not engaging in any sort of attempt to defraud the Social Security fund. Quite the contrary, I reported his death to the Social Security Administration immediately after it occurred and have been reporting it repeatedly ever since.
None of my two dozen or so calls ― or the day I took off work to visit my local Social Security office and paid $13 to park ― has changed the fact that, as of this writing, the SSA continues to deposit a monthly payment into the checking account I shared with my dead husband. In fact, they also continue to pay his Medicare premium out of his benefit payment. ...
By the way, has anyone ever received a corrected SSA-1099? Is that even theoretically possible? Also, by the way, in her piece Brenhoff eventually veered off into somehow blaming the agency's POMS manual for her problem, which, I guess, helps demonstrate a point that she was trying to make -- that few people understand how Social Security works.I reached out to my congressman, who was miraculously able to move a few mountains. We are still ironing out the errors that have compounded over the months and working on mitigating the longer-term impacts: For instance, why should I have to wait months for a corrected 1099 form on benefits that were paid in error and that the agency now wants back? ...
This happens more than you think. Hear stories of it frequently. Although, many times it's the reverse. SSA thinks you're dead when you're not. My great great aunt died in 1986 at 105 years old. The SSA stopped paying her benefits when she hit 102 because they thought she had passed already. She had to go in there and tell them that she was, in fact, not dead.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have issued someone a corrected 1099. It was difficult and time consuming - requires special action by the payment center.
ReplyDelete"But if you don’t know a particular benefit exists, how can you ask about it?"
ReplyDeleteSocial Security would gladly pay you that benefit if you gave us the information to know you are eligible. You may not know you are eligible on your ex-spouses record after he dies. SSA may not even know he was married (if he never filed or if he said he was never married) and wouldn't be able to divine who is eligible without someone asking about it.
It's not common but I have seen records where the regular death input doesn't do the job. Those cases require payment center assistance and we all know that is going to take some time.
And yet, when my Mother in Law died on November 1 a few years ago, the SSA was promptly notified. They issued a check on the 3rd (she was 91 years old and was still getting her monthly check on the 3rd) and within a week reclaimed that direct deposit for October from her account.
ReplyDeleteOf course, since she died on the 1st, she remained entitled to that check, or at least the amount was an underpayment that was then due not to her Estate but to her two adult children. They then had to file a separate claim for half of her check each. Which was paid in about two or three months.
Excuse to bash the agency as I see no mention of the more than 2.5 million deaths processed last year correctly.
ReplyDeleteHaving been declared dead by Social Security before in a year when I had a baby. And the birth was covered by Medicare! I might be a little jealous about the over payment here...LOL
ReplyDelete9:14 I think the piece is not bashing the agency for not processing the death correctly, mistakes happen. The frustration this woman feels is that she has REPEATEDLY informed Social Security that her husband is dead and they have been unable to fix the problem.
ReplyDelete12:48 oh I forgot, everything has to be handled instantly and nothing can ever go wrong, because that is how the entire rest of the world operates.
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ReplyDeleteWhile I believe the average private corporation would recognize a problem far quicker than 12 months, I would not hold SSA to the standard applied to the "rest of the world" as it is reasonable to allow for some delay with as large and intricate an operation as SSA is responsible for. The widow is not asking everything be handled "instantly," she is asking it be handled quicker than 12 months, which is reasonable.
1:52 PM. You are right. People have way too high of expectations. I mean they actually believe that government employees should actually be able to help them! They obviously don't have enough experience dealing with them. I, on the other hand, expect very little and have rarely been "disappointed." Park rangers are the few that actually want to be there. Even they have their lemons. When I am at the DOT for driver's license renewal, I expect the medical person to find "something" wrong with my medical report. It has been 17 years since my last seizure and 10 since I last took medications for epilepsy... But, they still want these forms filled out "correctly." They also want them every 2 years, despite 17 years without a seizure. On the other hand SSA thinks my shoulders aren't too bad with 18 years of increasing pain and same with my hands for 5. The ALJ even agreed to change my onset date, partially due to shoulder and hand pain, then claimed I could do 3 jobs that required up to 2/3 of a day using your shoulders and hands. If SSA can't figure out if someone is dead, then why should we expect them to get the disability part right? Especially when there are no consequences for them when they are wrong!
ReplyDeleteNot clear if she provided the death certificate. I had the claim of a person who passed away while I had the claim. In the jurisdiction where I work DDS cannot get the certificate from the state. After months in which I requested from the DO, relatives and the attorney to whom I even sent the forms and instructions and website to get the certificate , it was still not received. Estranged spouses have also been known to falsely declare a death
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