Man receives $20,000 in back benefits from Social Security. Five days later he received an overpayment notice from Social Security saying he owed $11,000.
I'm so inured to this sort of thing that the newspaper article didn't register with me at first. It didn't seem odd. It should but it's not surprising if you work in this field.
In my previous time as an SSI CR, still a trainee, made a manual input to post wages for a no-SSN parent. I don't remember the details but the input I made zeroed out years worth of wage data triggering an underpayment and release of funds. Because the system is the way it is, you don't know the result of your input until the next day. Needless to say I was mortified. Wasn't an extreme of an amount as what was mentioned above, but happened none-the-less. Point being, old archaic computer systems and people that aren't fully experienced, mistakes happen. However in my case I owned up to it and called the family immediately to let them know of the error so there wasn't a surprise. But then again, customer service and ownership of mistakes are sometimes a lost art.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an offset that wasn’t performed but honestly could be any number of adjustments missed at the initial award.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well, don't blame the computer for human error. If you input the wrong numbers in a calculator and get the wrong answer, do you blame the calculator? Problem is some technicians want to just be data entry clerks and not have to think about what they are doing, while getting paid as technicians.
ReplyDeleteInfrequently but often enough, incorrect SSNs, money amounts, dates, etc. are keyed-in resulting in incorrect changes made. Any time a human needs to key-in a number, mistakes can occur. The 'computer system', old or new, can only verify a limited amount of data. If you key-in $3000.00 a month and meant $300.00 a month how would the computer system identify the error? Many times the screen alerts that question an input are ignored/keyed-through by the technician because they are sure their entry is correct, no need re-check or to manually verify.
Sounds like T2 needs UPX reviews like SSI. That would surely help.
DeleteAt least it wasn't reverse where he received $11,000 followed by an overpayment letter of of $20,000.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that doesn't surprise me. Without reading the notices, my best guess is that SSA didn't do the offset and he got the full SSI and SSDI retro benefits. $11k seems like too much for it to be Medicare premiums or attorney's fees. Maybe he had an overpayment on his record for a previous period of entitlement, but I feel like that is more likely to get caught before past-due benefits are paid out.
ReplyDelete@11:02
ReplyDeleteI can't tell you the number of cases I've had that a quick phonecall to the overpaid recipient could have relieved a great deal of stress and would have been quite efficient in terms of actually getting the overpayment paid, is large.
Thank you for actually calling instead of the recipient just receiving a boilerplate notice.