Terry Savage and I are amassing Social Safety horror tales and posting them at my substack website, larrykotlikoff.substack.com. Join free and take a learn. When you’ve got a narrative, ship it to terry@terrysavage.com.

I copy under a narrative we simply obtained. I assumed I’d heard all of it. However right here we’ve the case of an 81 year-old widow being clawed again for $6,000 that she supposedly obtained 45 years in the past! The story was written by her daughter who additionally lives in terror that she will probably be clawed again for youngster advantages she obtained beginning at age 2.

In in the future, Congress can cease Social Safety’s acts of economic terrorism. All it wants do is move a invoice that stipulates that system overpayments past 18 months will not be clawed again until the overpayments are resulting from fraud by the recipient.

As is nearly at all times true, Social Safety supplied no rationalization about this clawback. It sounds just like the Social Safety clerk signed up the mom to obtain advantages even by she would lose them as a result of earnings take a look at. However, given the household profit most, advantages not paid to the mom ought to have been reallocated to the kids. Therefore, there needs to be no general family-wide clawback. If Social Safety mistakenly paid the mother advantages that have been presupposed to be paid to her youngsters, initially infants, advantages that might have been mailed anyway to the mother, no hurt no foul.

My guess is Social Safety has no paperwork courting again 45 years to confirm the “overpayment.” But when the system’s “sensible” software program is making this choice, why did it take 45 years to seek out its mistake? My sense is there’s a 50-50 probability the clawback is incorrectly calculated. However even when it have been, frequent decency says let it go.

Social Safety Claws Again an 81 12 months-Outdated Widow for Advantages Allegedly Acquired in 1978!

I learn an article on line, a number of weeks in the past, about how the Social Safety Administration was harassing a younger man for a supposed overpayment, that was despatched to his mom, when he was a baby..

I’ve an analogous state of affairs I have been coping with for about 2 years. It issues my 80 yr previous mom’s SS checks.. and your story now has me fearful that this may increasingly hang-out my sister and I until we will get it resolved..

I couple yrs in the past, my mom obtained a letter from SS.. saying that they believed she was overpaid approx $6000.. about 45 yrs in the past.. She was a younger widow, and my sister and I have been eligible to gather advantages from our father’s SS.. beginning in approx 1977.. I used to be about 14 when my father died of most cancers.. My mom had labored part-time for a number of years previous to his demise.. and he or she continued to take action.. I keep in mind her telling me that when she spoke to the person at social safety workplace, he mentioned he would divide the quantity we have been eligible to obtain, into 3 checks every month.. One to my mom, one to my mom for me and one to my mom for my sister.. She advised the person she deliberate to proceed working, however he appeared to imagine she would not.. and mentioned that he would simply set it up so her title was already within the system.. and if she stop working, it will be simpler so as to add her profit to the quantity.. I’ve heard that rationalization a number of instances through the years.. as to why she acquired a test in her title.. So she did proceed to work.. and remarried a number of yrs later.. My sister and I each continued to recieve checks in our personal title after we turned 18 whereas we continued to take school lessons. After we stopped going to varsity the checks stopped..

A few years go by; my mom continued to work on and off over the following 30 odd years.. Ultimately she determined to gather her personal social safety at age 66, I imagine.. She collected her roughly $980 social safety for 12-13 years.. Now, the SS administration believes she was overpaid, 45 yrs in the past and owes almost $6000. The primary letter mentioned they might be holding her total test for the following 7 months until she stuffed out a sure kind, claiming she did not imagine she owed the cash, as a result of it wasn’t her fault, or paying it again would trigger undue hardship.. She made a number of calls to get an appointment on the social safety workplace in Lake Mary Florida.. however this was through the covid pandemic, and all the things needed to be submitted electronically or left within the drop field.. She wrote a letter explaining that she didn’t imagine she was overpaid.. however resulting from it being 45 years in the past, she has no paperwork that provides particulars of what the profit quantity was presupposed to be, or whether or not that quantity included a widow profit, or was only for the kids.. We’ve got by no means been proven any paperwork from SS that proves how they got here to this conclusion.. and we’ve no means at this late date to argue her case..

Ultimately, after filling out kinds it was concluded that she hadn’t proved she didn’t show that she didn’t owe the cash.. however since her month-to-month test is her solely supply of revenue, SS agreed in a comply with up letter, to take $51 {dollars} a month, for a number of years till the $6000 was paid again.. Her checks continued to reach, minus the $51 .. Till the start of the next yr, when she once more obtained a letter stating the very same factor; that she owed 1000’s of {dollars}, and the SS administration was going to maintain all her total test for a number of months till they have been paid again!.. At this level the Lake Mary FL department workplace had reopened.. and we went in and talked to somebody in individual, pondering absolutely this might be a straightforward repair.. however once more, kinds have been stuffed out, no person may clarify why they weren’t honoring the letter they ship the earlier yr stating that $51 a month can be collected for the following a number of years.. After a number of journeys to talk to folks in individual, we lastly acquired a supervisor that reinstated the unique settlement.. however my 81 yr previous mom swears to at the present time she does not owe it.. however has no approach to battle it and has not seen any proof that she truly does.. She is continually terrified that her test will in the future simply cease exhibiting up.. and he or she wants that cash desperately.. as I mentioned, it’s her solely supply of revenue.. and my step father is in the identical boat, together with his well being rapidly deteriorating..