From Laurance Kotlikoff writing for Forbes :
... Roy Farmer of Grand Rapids Michigan has Cerebral Palsy. He’s 32. In 2019, out of the blue, he received a clawback letter from Social Security demanding he repay $4902 that his mother received back when he was 11. Roy has spent what is now over three years appealing this judgement. He’s been denied twice? Why? Because they need/want/can’t wait to clawback someone and his mother is deceased. ...
The ironic part to me, at least, is that the overpayment would have been automatically waived if waiver had been requested when Farmer was a child. Almost certainly, he had no resources of his own then and children are presumed to be without fault.
9 comments:
Cerebral palsy appears to be a non factor as he says he is able to lead a normal life.
Is it unfair? Yes. Would a statute of limitations apply to underpayments as well?
There used to be a limit but the politicians got rid of it in 2008
https://oig-files.ssa.gov/audits/full/A-04-14-14104_0.pdf
SSA won't refer delinquent debt with a date of May 19, 2002, or earlier to the treasury offset program. Anything later than May 19, 2002, may be referred for collection.
https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-10020
https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202201029
Per SI 02260.010 he is not at fault (an SSI child is a specific example in the policy), but is still liable. The waiver decision then comes down to an ability to pay.
Within the last two years I administratively waived a overpayment of a couple hundred dollars for a child beneficiary which dated back to the early 1970s. . .
Within the last two years I also got a call from someone who had a 5 figure tax refund "withheld" because his wife was overpaid as a child - the notice had been sent to his wife's childhood address per policy, and there was no way to unscramble the egg.
This is all a consequence of recent increases in funding of "Program Integrity Workloads" mandated by Congress - and unless Congress amends the Social Security Act, employees are obligated to attempt recovery of overpayments no matter how old they are.
I waive every one of these ridiculously old overpayments that crosses my path. Any CS that wouldn't is a coward.
Any private debt would have been long written off. It's insane that we're wasting PC and FO processing time trying to recoup this crap.
I'm not an attorney. But acceptance of benefits is basically contractual. So the question is,can a minor enter into a contract?
The benefits were used for the child. The payee and the child are jointly liable.
The trust fund needs this money, we can't afford to write off debt just because it's old. If the claimant wants to file for waiver that is their option. If they are making hundreds of thousands they should pay back what they owe.
And with inflation the value of the money being recouped many years later is really a fraction of what was originally owed to SSA.
the rep payee skates - that is a terrible policy - even in blatnatly willful violations where the custodial parent loses custody bit keeps the check, silently. So guess who foots the bill - the innocnet as a lamb minor, I had one where the rep payee later went on disability and her check was not affected a penny. We have some totally screwhy policies. The minor is allowed to ask for a waiver upon coming of age.
May 19, 2002 was less than 21 years ago. 21 years is rhe difference between when the "overpayment" "occurred" and his current age. So, what is so magical about May 19, 2002? Was this from a few days later? Seems like an arbitrary date. Is it locked in? Forever? Also, seems arbitrary if some can be waived and others not, especially with similar circumstances. Why was there an "overpayment" in the first place? Why did it take 16-17 years for him to be notified?
I believe most ALJ's would waive this as an absurd situation. I can't think of a single situation where I have found for SSA with very, very old debt that resulted from a minor's account.
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