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Imagine you are 25, haven’t seen your now deceased father since you were a young child, never received a penny from him, and find, in your mail, a demand from Social Security to repay over $4,500 that was supposedly overpaid to him on your behalf. This ... is exactly what happened and is happening to Felicia — a hardworking, single mom, who is struggling to get a college degree on a part-time basis. ...
This is the third story I’ve heard of Social Security reaching back decades to correct overpayments nominally paid to minors — minors who had no knowledge whatsoever of this fact nor any ability to determine that Social Security was sending the wrong amount.
Hopefully, someone at Social Security will read this column and put a stop to the System’s hounding of Felicia and others like her. ...
8 comments:
I just don't see it holding up under any legal precedent. Very few countries retaliate on generational issues. I can only think of one at the moment, and it certainly isn't the United States. There should be a limitation on how long after the overpayment they can collect, as well (except in cases of fraud or abuse, which, to SSA's computers, this may look like it, but I'm fairly certain is not). A human brain with eyes needs to evaluate this and see that it is not the right thing for our country to do to it's citizens.
File a waiver!
This appears to involve either the issue of contingent liability or joint and several liability. Either way, the person can file a waiver. Meanwhile, it really is not exactly up to Someone at Social Security to put a stop to this in a blanket manner. It's in section 204 of the Social Security Act. To put a permanent stop to it, talk to Congress.
@9:51
Colvin paused collections in order to review SSA's discretion in the matter.
https://apnews.com/article/f3d5c27839f94f6c965cd239af53a418
The fact that it is an open question suggests it could be paused again. Congress could certainly fix it, but the Courts seem more than willing to allow agencies to suspend actions, even actions which are required by statute. On a related note, I'm not sure who would even have standing to sue if SSA were to suspend overpayment collections of children for their deceased parents.
File a waiver. The SSA should do the Elsa thing - Let it go!
This is a problem, I'm aware of SSA's ability to collect from grown children for over payments that may be 30 years old (I'm working on one now) though there is supposed to be a ruling about fault being separate from the payee. There should be a statute of limitations or automatic waiver when the child had nothing to do with applying for the money and didn't even know how much was paid on their behalf or why they didn't receive the correct amount.
re: anon@12:45pm,
There should be a strict limit as to how long the agency can pursue overpayments. If it takes the agency 30 years to deal with an overpayment, the agency clearly has no business trying to collect it.
In the end, this all comes back to the worthlessness of our Congress. They KNOW this problem exists - just look at all the members of Congress that act "shocked" any time one of these cases ends up in the media. And yet, after years upon years upon years, none of them have ever legitimately tried to do anything about it. In the end, they want the money back as much as SSA does simply so they can waste it on important priorities like measuring the effect of cow farts on global warming or buying $700 toilet seats and hammers for the military.
One reason overpayments take so long to recover, or to attempt a recovery, is that there are many years from when the child was overpaid until there is contact with SSA again. Parent works or does something to be overpaid and for the children to be overpaid. Parent dies and no one files that was on that record until the child becomes disabled 30 years later. Overpayment pops up on the record. Could SSA have tried to recover sooner? Yes, but in many cases there is no response.
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