A widow in desperate need of her husband’s survivor benefits from Social Security is stone-walled for five months, until 2 Investigator Pam Zekman gets involved.
“I was very angry, very upset and I felt that the government let me down,” Darlene Groth, who was recently widowed, tells Zekman. ...
Groth had serious problems after she applied for survivors benefits from Social Security last August. She was told the money would arrive in 30 to 45 days, but it didn’t.
Groth called and came to the Social Security offices in Waukegan multiple times to find out what was going on with her benefits. ...
Within days after the [the TV station] called the Social Security Administration, the sum of $4,594 was deposited in her bank account for benefits due back to August. Her $1,648 benefit check is set to arrive this month. ...
A Social Security spokesperson says the normal processing time is about two weeks and Groth’s five-month delay was due to “an oversight by an employee.” He did not answer questions about exactly what the oversight was, adding they are unaware of any similar complaints. ...I've got a similar case, except worse. A recent widow came to me for help with her disability claim. I noticed that she had a couple of minor children and asked if they were getting child's benefits on her late husband's Social Security number. She said they weren't his children but the children of her first husband and that she had been told by Social Security that they couldn't get benefits on her second husband's account. I asked if her second husband, the one who had died, had supported these stepchildren. She told me he had supported them 100% since she hadn't been working the last couple of years before he died and there was no child support from the natural father of the children. I told her that the children were definitely entitled to benefits on their stepfather's account. She applied for the benefits. The Social Security employee who took the claim, like me, was surprised that the widow had been misinformed. That's more than five months ago and the children still haven't been paid. We keep calling and calling.
As I've written before, I know there are horrible backlogs at the Birmingham Payment Center, the one I deal with mostly. Routine work takes forever. The problem seems to affect retirement and survivor claims that are even slightly out of the ordinary rather than disability claims. This piece from the Chicago TV station suggests there are horrible backlogs at other Payment Centers.
13 comments:
Try this one: a client won a waiver of overpayment after an ALJ hearing. The ALJ orders all the money that had been withheld from client to be repaid. It's been a year since the hearing, and no word yet. I have to call every 60 days to the local office, who tell me they are sending inquiries to the payment center. Nothing. Crickets.
9:34 I hope you have an understanding client! I can only imagine that in the client's frustration, they take their anger out on you, thinking you're not doing enough to get them their payment.
About 61 million people collect Social Security benefits each month, and they account for about one in five people in the United States. In about one family in four, someone is receiving Social Security benefits.
Given the low number of problems I would think any company would be very pleased with the error percentage. Yes, for the individual it is devastating, but nothing in the world is perfect, and this is going to happen. Heck, I am in year 4 of a battle with Charter over a cable bill.
10:33, why do you assume the number of problems is low? Agreed that SSA is not going to get to 100% accuracy or efficiency but there's room for improvement. If SSA spent as much on administrative costs as Charter did, fewer people would have these problems.
For 9:34, has the client's members of Congress gotten involved?
10:33 am. This attitude shows the exact problem with Social Security. Social Security pats itself on the back for how many people they do pay, but meanwhile there are hundreds of thousands of people losing their homes, kids going hungry, disabled individuals going without meds and people dying because of delays in getting them the benefits they deserve. I don't think anyone ever died over a cable bill.
I'm 9:34. We haven't contacted the congresspeople yet; my client isn't complaining (I'm with a legal aid office), she's actually just glad it's resolved as to her current benefits, as this was the second erroneous overpayment she was charged with. Yes, I need to carve out the time to spend to really dig down into it, perhaps find the payment center that I can contact, and contact the congresspeople. Every time I think I can pull the file to do some of that work, another person in dire need walks in the door.
Truth be told !
Why haven't got Congress got invovled,this very serious especially for people who are really sick and disabled that have worked all there lives,that's just wrong......
@12:08 I dare Charter to deal with EVERY America. Your statement is not well thought out.
@934--Was it a waiver or a reconsideration? Waiver means she was unable to pay the OP but was at fault or had ability to repay. If it was a reconsideration, all of the withheld money should be repaid but if a waiver, not so sure about that. After all, she paid it.
@9:38
Waiver means the overpayment is waived, meaning she proved both she was not at fault, and she does not have the means to pay the overpayment. Reconsideration would not be handled by an ALJ. Reconsideration is the step before an ALJ, requesting SSA reconsider their finding of an overpayment.
I always bang this drum and you're only dancing around the point:
There are two avenues of appeals for overpayments. Challenging the amount or existence in the first place and then requesting waiver of recovery. The processes are different and you're supposed to settle finally the first claim (if present) before entertaining the second.
I talk about this in vain, I know, as so many ALJs can't even get the basics of waivers right. But I just like to point this out because too many FO/DO employees shepherd everyone into the waiver process (probably because it has a well-known SSA form) when the claimant is (also or only!) challenging amount or existence.
9:34 again. The client came to us after the time for appealing had run, so the only avenue open to us was waiver. Believe me, I know as much or more about waivers than the ALJs. Legal Services offices get involved in overpayment issues more than most other attorneys. The processes are different, the last poster (3:20) is right; if a client goes to the local office first, the claims reps will not file an appeal for the client, but will give them a waiver form. That's where we were on appeal. The fact that the client was given info on waiver, and not on appealing, meant that SSA withheld money while the waiver process was pending. (and, there is no right to a continuation of benefits under Title II, though usually benefits will continue if the client appeals within the first 10 days). Client ended up entitled to recovery of all amounts withheld from the time she first requested the waiver, until the matter was finally decided by the ALJ, which was a period of about a year. That's the lump sum we're waiting on.
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