So my dad is on disability/retirement pension and they received a letter stating that the SSA overpaid them the last few years and that my parents owe them $20,000. Now I'm sure this is chump change to many here and doesn't sound like a whole lot, but with the amount of bills they have to pay they have no hope in paying these people back for quite some time. Possibly 3 years at the earliest... the SSA sent a letter stating if they don't pay back that money they'll either stop the benefits or deduct money from each check to pay back the owed $20k.
All this to say that I'm infuriated by how evil these people are. It's clearly not my parents fault and they even state in the letter that it's not their fault, but they still spring this shit on their lap. Their lawyer apparently told them that nothing can be done about it either.
Well, that's crappy but not exactly surprising. I think the best they could do is try and negotiate for the smallest possible amount to be deducted from their check.
I think very few people would consider $20,000 chump change. I am really sorry they are placed in this position. I am sure they do not need the stress and worry not to mention the smaller monthly check in this economy.
If you don't mind me asking, why are they saying they overpaid? I have a friend where SS said the same thing. It was appealed and won. Let me get further details and get back.
They didn't really specify why, they basically just said that between 2017 and now they made a mistake in overpaying and that they are now owed the money. Pretty shitty honestly, especially since my parents could never have possibly known or been aware. So is it actually possible to appeal? Their lawyer doesn't seem to think so.
Screw that lawyer. Of course you can appeal and you can request a waiver. I sent a link in another post. Tell them you don't want your har earned money funneled back to the democratic party. Do you have a good congressman?
I agree that they can appeal and they can fight. They need a better advisor / lawyer.
Okay, hold up.
My folks were just told they had an SSA issue as well. They went to their SSA office to ask about it, and it turned out the SSA messed up! Maybe this happened on OP folks' end, too?
However, because of this massive mistake on the SSA's part, they now owe the IRS a good chunk of money.
Anyone else hearing something similar??
Thank you for helping.
It's infuriating all the freaking BILLIONS sent to ukraine, and then THIS happens to Americans? Outrageous!
It's quite fucking disheartening. I've spent hours reading up articles and forum posts about other Americans dealing with this shit. I've read some crazy stories about the SSA going after the children and grandchildren of dead parents and trying to force them to pay tens of thousands of owed debt even though the children have absolutely nothing to do with it. There's supposedly this 10 year grace window where they won't go back further than 10 years to claim any debt, yet they're going back 40+ years for so many Americans and claiming money is still owed. It just seems like extortion to me.
Disheartening and unconstitutional as well. That's how it should be fought, imo. On constitutional grounds.
This is what happens when you give the government zero liability for anything.
I am sorry my friend said she doesn't know but won and got all the back money deserved. This person is bi polar, jabbed to the max, told her sister can't attend her sons wedding unless her family gets jabbed. I don't think she is bi-polar, just a crazy, brainwashed, still asleep liberal.
I think you should help them appeal. Request a waiver. https://www.socialsecurityintelligence.com/social-security-overpayment/
I don't know where you live but it may help if you can contact a good congressman.
^^^ this. I’ve dealt with SSA for years and if you claim it will cause a hardship to repay they can waive it and just correct the amount going forward. SSA is horrible about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing
I cannot believe they could do this...I suggest you seriously put this before the Lord because it sounds way to difficult to solve on your own? Do they have retirement they can tap into? I will definitely pray for you family...prayer changes things.
(⌣́_⌣̀)
They need to consult a different lawyer. This is terrible, fren. I pray they get the help they need.
Contact their Congress representative. See if they can help.
I appreciate the concern but they called the real SS office and spoke to an employee and their own attorney received the letter so it's all real, unfortunately.
https://oig.ssa.gov/scam-awareness/identify-the-scam/
Are they sure it isn’t a scam? Absolutely sure? I pray it is and they go in to an actual SSA and verify. I’ll pray for them.
It's definitely real. They even spoke to them over the phone and their own attorney confirmed it's real.
that is not the same as going into the office and seeing it is official. wish you the best though.
See OKC bombing.
This is not the same situation but my sister was denied unemployment. She did quit her job because they were making it difficult due to covid. Anytime a kid was sick at daycare they pulled this stupid covid shit. Kids would have to quarantine and my niece would have to stay home. That left my sister without daycare and work who making you work from hime suddenly decided that you can't work and have your kid at home which was previously not a problem. My sister appealed the denial and got a back pay of over $12,000. First of all getting a hold of unemployment was impossible she had to go through her state rep who was very helpful and we live in a blue state (supposedly) PA is red. Anyways, she normally would get assistance after the rep intervened. Don't take this lying down.
Totally agree with post by 614Patriot. "Severe financial hardship" is a thing. They may even be able to pay only $10-20 per month, ask what the minimum is. I know with hospital bills, as long as you are paying "something" they won't come after you. My ex was "paying off" a $100,000+ hospital bill with $25 per month. Even the IRS lets you come up with a payment plan.
Maybe they need a different lawyer, one who specializes in SSA disability cases.
It is the criminals at the government.
Refunds are based on your tax return for 2022. They can’t arbitrarily change the number.
Our refund was supposed to be a little over $1000 and ended up being $17...
You can appeal the overpayment. He needs to show it will create a sever financial hardship. Possibly enter into a payment plan over 10 -20 or more years. SSD lawyers don’t like to handle overpayment cases because there are no legal fees. There are forms for appeal and hardship online. Just don’t miss any deadlines. Good luck.
I think their SOP is to reclaim ASAP by stopping checks until they have recouped. I'm in a similar boat because I'm below full retirement age and earned about 8k over the cap. So I was told that the IRS sends the W2 to SS, then the SS will stop my checks until the 50% of over-cap is returned.
Your case might be different though. Good luck.
Please explain this if you will. Do you mean that if you continue to have income once you've started on social security, you are penalized? I don't follow. Thanks.
Earned income for people below full retirement age is capped at 19,500 for 2022. Any money earned over the cap costs 50% of over cap to be removed from your SS. in my case the SSA will reclaim about 4,000 since i'm about 8,000 over the cap.
Okay, so let me see if I understand. Let's say full retirement age for you is 65, but you're currently 64 and took SS a little early. And you're still working part time and you earned $19,500 at your job in 2022. So let's say your SS income was 25K, and, you were 'allowed' to earn an additional $19,500, which you did. So your total income for the year was $44,500. And you were NOT penalized because you stayed within the limits of the 19.5K. BUT, if everything else was the same, that you were 64, taking SS early, and you actually earned 50K at your job and 25K through SS for a total of 75K. So at that point, you've gone over what you're 'allowed' to earn by $30,500. So are you saying that HALF of that $30,500 would be taken from you??! I hope I've got that wrong. Because who in the hell ever gave the government permission to rob Americans like that?!! Does it change once you actually reach your full SS age? Same scenario, $30 k over -- do you still get penalized like that? Thanks for the info. It's eye opening.
Yes thats how it works, the cap the year you reach full age is around 50k, fuzzy on how they figure out partial year.
When you reach full retirement age you will get an increased payout of .6% a month for each month of SS they took back. If you lost 1 year then you would get 7.2% increase... take me until about 81 to recoup.
Yikes! That's terrible. Thank you for explaining though.
If that's the case it wouldn't apply to my dad since he's retired and isn't making any income, so this isn't a situation of being overpaid benefits based on income but merely an error on the part of the SSA themselves, which is why this is so infuriating.
Fren, I hope you help them fight this. I agree with others who have said it could be a mistake on the SSA's part. That wouldn't be surprising at all. But even if it weren't, it's still THEIR mistake because people don't calculate their own SS benefits. That's done by the government. So you're right, how would your parents have known. Fight, fight, fight! I mean, start out pleasantly with the local SS office. But if you get any guff, fight it through til the end. Maybe find a good constitutional attorney to help. Best of luck to all of you and I hope you'll keep us posted.
Sorry to say but if you want to suck on the governments tit, then you have to accept their incompetence. And if you didn’t know, it’s all a scam. What they’re doing to your parents isn’t a one-off thing, it’s their fucking job. Oops, you forgot to cross your i’s and dot your t’s, now your money is ours.
Best outcome I see is rejecting gov handouts and fighting the debt under common law.
Suck on the government's tit? You don't even know why they're on disability, asshole.
I see you couldn’t make it past the first sentence before responding emotionally. That’s fine.
Thinking you can beat criminals in a legal systems, using members of their legal society (the bar) is a losing game.
Either play their stupid games, use their forms, let them drag it out for who knows how long, costing who knows how much, or, you can challenge the debt in your own court.
Whatever you do, best of luck man.
Darn socialist government giving out money to people in need