Social Safety is routinely clawing again advantages it claims it paid by mistake over years if not many years. This coverage is merciless and strange. It’s based mostly on Social Safety’s despicable mantra: Our mistake is your mistake. It leaves 77 million Social Safety recipients dwelling in fixed concern of getting advantages acquired for years, if not many years, clawed again partially or in full.

These letters include no rationalization. When you don’t pay up, your advantages are turned off. In the meantime you’ve paid taxes on these advantages. Social Safety doesn’t appear to care if you’re surviving on the advantages and can starve to loss of life in weeks with out them.

Cellphone calls to enchantment go unanswered or deflected. Formal appeals and letters requesting explanations go unanswered — for years. Requesting assist at native places of work is helpless. Congress should move a legislation that stipulates that errors made by Social Safety are usually not recoverable except carried out so inside a yr and after a full rationalization, together with a private listening to.

Social Safety claws again youngsters for advantages their mother and father acquired on the youngsters’s behalf. It claws again incapacity recipients. It claws again academics and firefighters and police. It claws again 70-year-olds, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, folks of any age. It claws again advantages 20 years or longer from the time they’re paid.

This should finish. Performing Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi should both finish this observe or publicly decry it. In any other case, she is complicit in these acts and will resign.

At a private degree, each Social Safety recipient — particularly those that labored in non-covered employment or had been topic to the Earnings Take a look at; or acquired advantages on a partner, dad or mum, or ex-spouse’s document — ought to be certain that they aren’t being overpaid. My firm’s MaximizeMySocialSecurity software program may also help you determine for those who’re gathering the correct amount. And overpayment is just not the one mistake Social Safety is making. Additionally they could also be underpaying you. Once more, the software program, which may be very cheap, may also help.

Terry Savage and I are gathering these horror tales. Ship Terry yours at terry@terrysavage.com. Beneath is one we simply acquired:

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My title is Terry. I’m 73 years outdated.

I retired in 2009 at age 60 after 35+ years of public college educating and started receiving my full retirement pension from TRS. A number of of my retired instructor associates urged me to go to a Social Safety workplace to see if I used to be eligible for any advantages based mostly on varied jobs I held earlier to educating. So, at age 65 I went to the Social Safety workplace in Palos Hills Illinois and met with a consultant. I used to be advised that I used to be not entitled to full advantages since I used to be receiving a full academics pension from TRS, however would qualify for a decreased advantage of $404.00 per thirty days. I trusted she was the professional; she did all of the calculations. She assisted me in finishing the required paperwork and I began receiving this profit a number of months later. Every year the profit quantity was elevated in keeping with the Social Safety guidelines.

My spouse, Sandra, retired after 45 years within the Healthcare subject on August 31, 2020. Till that point, my medical protection was by means of her group insurance coverage. Beginning in September 2020, my Medicare Half B fee was taken from my Social Safety profit and I acquired the rest.

All good till October, 2022 once we acquired a letter out of the blue from Social Safety Administration informing me that I owed them $24,436.60 as a result of they overpaid me. Outraged, we contacted our native Social Safety workplace in Woodridge and the nightmare continued to develop and get extra concerned and extra convoluted. Each telephone name resulted in a distinct story from “that is simply

simply
an error we’ll get corrected” to “it’s a must to pay this inside 30 days.” Repeatedly we requested for a proof of the overpayment however nobody might present such a solution. They had been as confused as we had been. On December 5, 2022 I filed a proper enchantment (hand delivered to the Woodridge workplace) asking not just for a proof however to maintain my advantages in tact whereas the enchantment was being researched. It’s outrageous that NO ONE

ONE
might give us any info OR inform us what precipitated this occasion.

A comply with up 30 days later with the Woodridge workplace stated the enchantment was nonetheless pending and advantages had been nonetheless intact. No advantages posted in my checking account in January. One other name to study the enchantment had not been reviewed but and there may be nothing they might do.

No advantages posted in February or March.

I need to say that all through this entire ordeal we’d frequently obtain letters from Social Safety with complicated details about takebacks and/or funds coming subsequent month, or funds you’re going to get in September, and so on. They had been loopy. My final name to Social Safety I used to be advised to disregard the letters….the data in them was flawed.

I additionally need to say that at NO level was I advised that my Medicare Half B fee was in danger. In reality, I used to be getting month-to-month payments from Medicare for my small Irma fee and paid them instantly. The Medicare.gov web site exhibits all my premiums updated and I verified that on the automated telephone system at Medicare. Sadly, the Woodridge workplace advised me yesterday that actually my Half B funds haven’t been paid since January 1.

I’ve had two medical procedures in February and several other comply with up physician visits. From all I can see on the Medicare web site, these had been coated and paid in full. Who is true?

To this point we’ve got acquired NO RESPONSE from my enchantment and the Woodridge workplace acknowledged yesterday they might “escalate the problem.” What sort of nonsense is that this! How dare the Social Safety workplace harass retired folks after working their total lives in schooling and healthcare. We aren’t solely outraged however disillusioned in a system that we thought was based mostly on caring for our technology. This entire expertise has had detrimental results on our lives each bodily and mentally and I urge and urge Social Safety to right “their” error and resolve this problem by backing off and returning to me the advantages I deserve and labored so laborious for. My spouse and I labored laborious to determine a cushty monetary retirement. Now’s the time to get pleasure from our lives and never be burdened with this disastrous and inaccurate monetary burden. Moreover, if the Social Safety Administration miscalculated my profit that’s their burden and never mine.