Last month, Packrat and I saw the end of a 5-year battle with the Social Security Administration. We learned along the way that it wasn’t just us: the SSA decided a few years ago that they could collect “overpayments” that were years or even decades old, and that they could collect from relatives other than the person who was actually paid. There’s a federal lawsuit going on right now, on behalf of people like Mary Grice, who had $3000 seized from her tax refund without notice, over an alleged overpayment to her mother — or possibly to her father’s ex-wife — from 1977, when Grice was 4 years old.
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If for some unlikely reason you want the tl/dr version of Packrat’s and my situation, here’s part 1 and part 2. The short version was summed up by the judge at our hearing last December: “You were the caregiver and payee for your minor niece….and the SSA lowered the rate and made it retroactive to ten years earlier….and they want you to pay back $4500….for a period when when you weren’t even the payee? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Us: “THANK YOU! No, it doesn’t.”
This was the culmination of five years of filling out forms, spending hours on hold, wasting days at the Social Security office, and explaining over & over that we can’t have been “overpaid” money that was paid to Packrat’s now-deceased mother, who was Kali’s caregiver before us. It was like trying to argue with a voice mail menu. They just kept asking whether it would be a “financial burden” for us to pay it. Were we “financially dependent” on that $4500? (Um, no….because we’d never received it. Argh.)
I can only imagine what this experience must be like for people who didn’t have our middle-class advantages, who didn’t have a work schedule that could accommodate those calls and office trips, or didn’t have transportation, or were too disabled to wait for hours in those little plastic chairs. Who didn’t have experience with navigating bureaucracy, or even internet access to download the right form when the SSA sent us the wrong one.
We were persistent, following every avenue of appeals and waivers, checking and double-checking every box. (Thank goodness for certified mail with return receipts!) But we were also lucky. We got a judge who was willing to apply some sense to an absurd situation.
Clients aren’t given the verdict during the hearing, possibly just to keep anyone from making a scene, so we had three more months to worry (and argue with their collection attempts). Three months after the hearing, five years after the whole mess started, we finally got the letter: “FAVORABLE DECISION.” We owe nothing.
This was followed by several pages explaining how we could appeal that decision if we wished. Um…..no.
On to Top Comments!
From greenbird:
Short words: mighty brains. (Note from Tara: comment is from memofromturner, in Mark Sumner’s diary The FBI takes the dossier of Trump-Russia connections seriously, which is serious trouble for Trump.)
From jwinIL14:
This pithy-perfect observation by jhecht pertaining to the subject matter of this story deserves a round of applause.
From Belinda Ridgewood:
In today's APR, a discussion broke out about Trump's taste in decorating. Arfeeto brought up a musical allusion, and memofromturner supplied some revised lyrics.
From thuryya :
I was moved by
this comment Elnal60 made to
Bill in Portland Maine about chemo.
Highlights:
Highlighted by both tcdup and themis, this comment by mbayrob has a slightly NSFW description of the problem with Trump. Found in GDoyle’s diary, You know what they say….Small inauguration….Small Super Bowl celebration.
HealthcareWatcher highlighted this comment by alphac2005 about blue visibility in a red area. Ptressel highlighted a comment from dsnottelliott on rethinking conventional wisdom on how to win in red areas. Both found in trafficmac’s diary Notes from the ground in GA-06.
ZenTrainer highlighted this comment from lincolnliberal on the importance of long-term party building. Found in Kerry Eleveld’s diary Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz stepping down after 2018, will not run for ‘any office.’
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Picture quilt, courtesy of jotter: