Another Big Inside Job

     From the Sacramento Bee:

A West Sacramento man is accused of taking part in a scheme that defrauded the Social Security Administration of more than $450,000, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.  

A federal grand jury Thursday returned a 13-count indictment against Eric Lemoyne Willis, 42, of West Sacramento, and Darron Dimitri Ross, 33, of Charlotte, North Carolina, said the U.S. attorney’s office in a press release. They have been charged with conspiracy to defraud and commit crimes against the United States, theft of government property, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.  

According to the release, Willis worked as a Social Security Administration operation supervisor in Sacramento and Lodi from 2015 to 2018. During this time, Willis accessed private information of Social Security beneficiaries who used direct deposit for large benefit sums, officials said. 

Willis gave this information to Ross in North Carolina, where Ross set up fake bank accounts with the stolen identities, according to the U.S. attorney. Ross then called the Social Security Administration and attempted to transfer benefit deposits from the original bank accounts to the fraudulent accounts he established using the beneficiaries’ private information.

How Long Does It Take To Resolve Simple Social Security Mistakes? A Long, Long Time

     From CBS Chicago:

Days after a suburban man’s mother died, he noticed large withdrawals from her bank account. 

Tim Carlberg feels beaten down by his almost four month battle with the Social Security Administration.

Less than ten days after his 89-year-old mother died in August, someone from the social security office electronically swooped in and withdrew five payments from her bank account.  The problem is, they were only supposed to take back one payment, from the month she died. ...

Instead, social security withdrew $7,028 more than owed. They did it all within three days.

Carlberg says he noticed the withdrawals almost immediately and called social security.  An employee acknowledged the wrong date of death had been recorded. ...

“I thought everything was taken care of the first time I talked to somebody, but here we are three months later,” Carlberg said.

Dozens of phone calls, hours of headaches and several form submissions later, Carlberg still has no refund.

“We can’t get any answers. That’s the biggest frustration. Nobody seems to know, and then they don’t let you talk to anybody to get the answers. And then it changes,” Carlberg said. ...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Rep Payee Steals $516,000

     Lorene Deanda has been arrested in Sacramento, California. Deanda worked for a charitable agency. She served as representative payee for a number of Social Security recipients who couldn't handle their own money. Deanda is alleged to have stolen $516,000 from bank accounts set up for the claimants.

No Government Shutdown For Social Security

     In case you were wondering, the "government shutdown" that the President is threatening in order to get his wall is only a partial shutdown. Most of the government, including the Social Security Administration, is not affected because the appropriations bills covering those agencies have already been passed by Congress and signed by the President. This is one of the many facts that contribute to the President's weak position. There's also the facts that most voters don't want the wall, Republican members of Congress are, at best, lukewarm on the wall, and Democrats will control the House of Representatives in less than two weeks. Also, the President is generally quite unpopular and even Republican members of Congress are dismayed by many of the President's recent actions, such as the withdrawal from Syria. I suppose it won't dawn on it until he hears it from Fox and Friends or Vladimir Putin but Trump has little leverage on anything that involves Congress apart from judicial appointments.

Nice Christmas Story -- A Simple Overpayment That Wasn't The Claimant's Fault Leads To Homelessness

     How does one become homeless? I'm sure there are a million ways. One Los Angeles resident writes movingly about his rapid descent into homelessness because of a simple Social Security overpayment. It should have been easy to resolve the overpayment. He probably would have qualified for waiver of the overpayment since he's clearly poor and the overpayment wasn't his fault but no one told him the overpayment could be waived. He thought he had a repayment schedule worked out but apparently a Social Security employee didn't do what they were supposed to be so things reverted to the default mode of seizing 100% of each month's check until the overpayment is collected.

     Why is it that seizure of 100% of each month's check is the default mode for overpayments? Is that really necessary? If the claimant is confused or even a little negligent or a Social Security employee doesn't promptly do what they're supposed to do, the claimant receives no check and many become desperate immediately. Remember, overpayments are often not the claimant's fault. Even if they are the claimant's fault, the fault is usually minor. Don't conflate overpayments with fraud.

Merry Christmas