Social Security does great good and great harm. If you have been victimized, here's a way to inform Congress and Social Security's Trustees. This posting is joint with Terry Savage.
It's one thing to find a mistake in a year and fix it. It's another to make a mistake year after year and hit someone up for $100K (I've seen even higher clawbacks) after a decade and pretend that's not causing horrific financial injury. best, Larry
I've been receiving SSDI checks since 2018. As a condition, I was allowed to work a job as long as I didn't go over the year's designated monthly SGA. I've stayed under the SGA and faithfully submitted my paystubs as proof. They stopped sending me checks in July siting overpayment to me sometime in 2021 and want me to pay back more than 30k due immed. Add'l letters to me sited Covid was the reason and that the agents stopped going in to work and didn't open the mail containing paystubs. Instead they aprox on my behalf. In Aug. I recv'd letter saying they will be slow in processing my payments TO them now, because of Covid! I have the letters as proof!
Ssdi beneficiary single mom 61 with adult son 18 on the spectrum. During Covid was approached to be my son’s waiver caregiver. I called social security and explained the situation was to keep my son active in the states waiver services program. Social security representative told me if the services were for my son it would not affect my monthly benefits. Words were “if it’s for your son don’t worry about it”. Appeals twice were both denied. Currently waiting for an administrative judge hearing. They are telling me no SSDI pay for me until 2026. Overpayment is almost $43,000.
Hello, I am so glad I ran across the 60 minutes video. I have a $34000.00 Soc Sec nightmare. It all happened at the start of COVID. I have proof that I followed their rules. I filed for waiver and I filed for a hearing. I have heard nothing on the hearing. I am a vision impaired single Mom. My adult child is on the spectrum. I have called attorneys and no one will help because there is no good outcome. I even tried contacting my local representative from Ca.
My husband got a notice in 2018 that his father had been overpaid $214 in dependent benefits for him in 1980. Yep, we had to pay it back. At least it was a relatively small amount and they didn't charge interest for 38 years.
Just a comment.( I support Next Avenue it’s one of my faves but didn’t want to join another list. )
Going thru similar as to what others said in SS article, a small miracle happened for us last year. I was scouring the web for help & came upon a blurb someone had written somewhere suggesting to contact your local representative in your local precinct . She serves in our state govt. So I did reach out to her by email & believe it or not she contacted our local House Representatives office who had on board a person who actually met with us (emotionally & mentally beat up by then). She made all the calls from there on , to our towns SS office. We could walk in without an appt. and did so for months until she resolved the situation. Her tenacity and sense of public service was astounding & she got it straightened out for us. So my advice which I’m happy to have a chance to pass along is to seek out your local govt contacts and hope you will meet someone just like we did.
As an aside what still rubs me the wrong way is knowing the many different people who answer your calls from SS are making good money and good govt benefits. I talked to reps all over the country & never got the same answer twice before we met our heroine.
If a bank erroneously deposits $1,000 into your checking account, you're not entitled to keep it- even though it was their error. How much more so with federal taxpayer dollars? This is why ability to repay is a factor in all waiver determinations, and rightly so.
Under the “unified budget” concept, [Congress] promptly spent the [Social Security] surpluses [between 1985 and 2010] on current government operations, leaving nothing in the Fund other than the government’s promise to repay from the General Fund as needed, the cumulative surpluses withdrawn from the Trust Fund now totaling $2.7 trillion.
Such promises must necessarily be regarded as highly uncertain at best and unlikely at worst in this day and age of unending $1-$2 trillion General Fund deficits and smaller, yet significant Trust Fund deficits; Republican refusal to raise taxes on corporations and rich Republican donors, eager to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society; and threats by nihilistic House Republicans (many of whom approve of the violent overthrow of the government, for whom default represents a viable alternative) refusing to raise the debt ceiling without draconian cuts in discretionary social spending (resisted by Democrats), ignoring the catastrophic specter of a government shutdown and default.
We must face the reality that the Trust Fund has been fundamentally insolvent ever since it began running deficits around 2010, entirely dependent upon a dysfunctional House of Representatives (now apparently run by Marjorie Taylor Greene taking telephoned orders from Donald Trump) to make up Trust Fund deficits by piling yet more debt on top of a national debt already exceeding that of World War II as a percentage of GDP. If that’s not reason enough to panic, I don’t know what is.
See: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND ARE AFRAID TO ASK
PART 1: Will Seniors receive their Social Security checks if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling?
It's one thing to find a mistake in a year and fix it. It's another to make a mistake year after year and hit someone up for $100K (I've seen even higher clawbacks) after a decade and pretend that's not causing horrific financial injury. best, Larry
Pls call me at 617 834-2148. Thanks, Larry
Hi Melissa, Pls call me at 617 834-2148 and we'll discuss a strategy. best, Larry
Amen it wasn't worse. best, Larry
I've been receiving SSDI checks since 2018. As a condition, I was allowed to work a job as long as I didn't go over the year's designated monthly SGA. I've stayed under the SGA and faithfully submitted my paystubs as proof. They stopped sending me checks in July siting overpayment to me sometime in 2021 and want me to pay back more than 30k due immed. Add'l letters to me sited Covid was the reason and that the agents stopped going in to work and didn't open the mail containing paystubs. Instead they aprox on my behalf. In Aug. I recv'd letter saying they will be slow in processing my payments TO them now, because of Covid! I have the letters as proof!
Ssdi beneficiary single mom 61 with adult son 18 on the spectrum. During Covid was approached to be my son’s waiver caregiver. I called social security and explained the situation was to keep my son active in the states waiver services program. Social security representative told me if the services were for my son it would not affect my monthly benefits. Words were “if it’s for your son don’t worry about it”. Appeals twice were both denied. Currently waiting for an administrative judge hearing. They are telling me no SSDI pay for me until 2026. Overpayment is almost $43,000.
Hello, I am so glad I ran across the 60 minutes video. I have a $34000.00 Soc Sec nightmare. It all happened at the start of COVID. I have proof that I followed their rules. I filed for waiver and I filed for a hearing. I have heard nothing on the hearing. I am a vision impaired single Mom. My adult child is on the spectrum. I have called attorneys and no one will help because there is no good outcome. I even tried contacting my local representative from Ca.
My husband got a notice in 2018 that his father had been overpaid $214 in dependent benefits for him in 1980. Yep, we had to pay it back. At least it was a relatively small amount and they didn't charge interest for 38 years.
Just a comment.( I support Next Avenue it’s one of my faves but didn’t want to join another list. )
Going thru similar as to what others said in SS article, a small miracle happened for us last year. I was scouring the web for help & came upon a blurb someone had written somewhere suggesting to contact your local representative in your local precinct . She serves in our state govt. So I did reach out to her by email & believe it or not she contacted our local House Representatives office who had on board a person who actually met with us (emotionally & mentally beat up by then). She made all the calls from there on , to our towns SS office. We could walk in without an appt. and did so for months until she resolved the situation. Her tenacity and sense of public service was astounding & she got it straightened out for us. So my advice which I’m happy to have a chance to pass along is to seek out your local govt contacts and hope you will meet someone just like we did.
As an aside what still rubs me the wrong way is knowing the many different people who answer your calls from SS are making good money and good govt benefits. I talked to reps all over the country & never got the same answer twice before we met our heroine.
If a bank erroneously deposits $1,000 into your checking account, you're not entitled to keep it- even though it was their error. How much more so with federal taxpayer dollars? This is why ability to repay is a factor in all waiver determinations, and rightly so.
They can't get it back 40 years later, which SSA does.
IT GETS WORSE:
Under the “unified budget” concept, [Congress] promptly spent the [Social Security] surpluses [between 1985 and 2010] on current government operations, leaving nothing in the Fund other than the government’s promise to repay from the General Fund as needed, the cumulative surpluses withdrawn from the Trust Fund now totaling $2.7 trillion.
Such promises must necessarily be regarded as highly uncertain at best and unlikely at worst in this day and age of unending $1-$2 trillion General Fund deficits and smaller, yet significant Trust Fund deficits; Republican refusal to raise taxes on corporations and rich Republican donors, eager to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society; and threats by nihilistic House Republicans (many of whom approve of the violent overthrow of the government, for whom default represents a viable alternative) refusing to raise the debt ceiling without draconian cuts in discretionary social spending (resisted by Democrats), ignoring the catastrophic specter of a government shutdown and default.
We must face the reality that the Trust Fund has been fundamentally insolvent ever since it began running deficits around 2010, entirely dependent upon a dysfunctional House of Representatives (now apparently run by Marjorie Taylor Greene taking telephoned orders from Donald Trump) to make up Trust Fund deficits by piling yet more debt on top of a national debt already exceeding that of World War II as a percentage of GDP. If that’s not reason enough to panic, I don’t know what is.
See: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY AND ARE AFRAID TO ASK
PART 1: Will Seniors receive their Social Security checks if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling?
https://davidlsmith.substack.com/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about
PART 2 What’s the matter with Social Security? The Great Deception and its consequences.
https://davidlsmith.substack.com/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about-50f
PART 3: How did Social Security get into this predicament? Should we be worried?
https://davidlsmith.substack.com/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about-e61