REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ decades-old debts

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 21:06
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Friday, April 11, 2014 8:49 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


Quote:


A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery.

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years, said Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department’s debt management service. The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.

No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases. A Social Security spokeswoman says the agency didn’t seek the change; ask Treasury. Treasury says it wasn’t us; try Congress. Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy.

The only explanation the government provides for suddenly going after decades-old debts comes from Social Security spokeswoman Dorothy Clark: “We have an obligation to current and future Social Security beneficiaries to attempt to recoup money that people received when it was not due.”

Since the drive to collect on very old debts began in 2011, the Treasury Department has collected $424 million in debts that were more than 10 years old. Those debts were owed to many federal agencies, but the one that has many Americans howling this tax season is the Social Security Administration, which has found 400,000 taxpayers who collectively owe $714 million on debts more than 10 years old. The agency expects to have begun proceedings against all of those people by this summer.

“It was a shock,” said Grice, 58. “What incenses me is the way they went about this. They gave me no notice, they can’t prove that I received any overpayment, and they use intimidation tactics, threatening to report this to the credit bureaus.”

Grice filed suit against the Social Security Administration in federal court in Greenbelt this week, alleging that the government violated her right to due process by holding her responsible for a $2,996 debt supposedly incurred under her father’s Social Security number.

Social Security officials told Grice that six people — Grice, her four siblings and her father’s first wife, whom she never knew — had received benefits under her father’s account. The government doesn’t look into exactly who got the overpayment; the policy is to seek compensation from the oldest sibling and work down through the family until the debt is paid.

The Federal Trade Commission, on its Web site, advises Americans that “family members typically are not obligated to pay the debts of a deceased relative from their own assets.” But Social Security officials say that if children indirectly received assistance from public dollars paid to a parent, the children’s money can be taken, no matter how long ago any overpayment occurred.


More at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/social-security-treasury-target
-hundreds-of-thousands-of-taxpayers-for-parents-old-debts/2014/04/10/74ac8eae-bf4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?hpid=z1

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Monday, April 28, 2014 11:40 PM

WISHIMAY


You know I've been thinking lately that most of these hacking jobs in the news have been perpetrated BY our government, siphoning off funds for something massive... This article doesn't do much to dissuade me of that.

Gearing up for a war maybe? they sure have been doing their best lately to head that way.
Wouldn't you love to see the gov'ts little black finances book??

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 12:44 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


The program was authorized by a 2008 change in the law that allows Social Security and other federal agencies, through the Treasury, to seize federal payments to recoup debts that are more than 10 years old. Previously, there was a 10-year limit on using the program.
Democratic Sens. Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland complained about the program in a letter to Colvin. "While this policy of seizing tax refunds to repay decades-old Social Security overpayments might be allowed under the law, it is entirely unjust," the senators wrote.


DRAT! That Obam ... oh, that was Bush.


People With Old Social Security Debts Get Reprieve

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/social-security-halts-effort-
collect-debts-23323727




People with old Social Security debts are getting a reprieve — for now.

The Social Security Administration had been participating in a program in which thousands of people were having their tax refunds seized to recoup overpayments that happened more than a decade ago.

On Monday, Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin said she was suspending the program while the agency conducts a review.

Social Security recipients and members of Congress complained that people were being forced to repay overpayments that were sometimes paid to their parents or guardians when they were children.

The Social Security Administration says it has identified about 400,000 people with old debts. They owe a total of $714 million.

So far, the agency says it has collected $55 million, mainly by having the Treasury Department seize tax refunds.

Colvin said she was suspending the program "pending a thorough review of our responsibility and discretion under the current law to refer debt to the Treasury Department."

"If any Social Security or Supplemental Security Income beneficiary believes they have been incorrectly assessed with an overpayment under this program, I encourage them to request an explanation or seek options to resolve the overpayment," Colvin said.

The program was authorized by a 2008 change in the law that allows Social Security and other federal agencies, through the Treasury, to seize federal payments to recoup debts that are more than 10 years old. Previously, there was a 10-year limit on using the program.

In most cases, the seizures are tax refunds.

The Washington Post first reported on the program.

Democratic Sens. Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland complained about the program in a letter to Colvin.

"While this policy of seizing tax refunds to repay decades-old Social Security overpayments might be allowed under the law, it is entirely unjust," the senators wrote.

After Colvin's announcement, Boxer said in a statement, "I am grateful that the Social Security Administration has chosen not to penalize innocent Americans while the agency determines a fair path forward on how to handle past errors."

There are several scenarios in which people may have received overpayments as children. For example, when a parent of a minor child dies, the child may be eligible for survivor's benefits, which are often sent to the surviving parent or guardian.

If there was an overpayment made on behalf of the child, that child could be held liable years later, as an adult.

Also, if a child is disabled, he or she may receive overpayments. Those overpayments would typically be taken out of current payments, once they are discovered.

But if disability payments were discontinued because the child's condition improved, Social Security could try to recoup the overpayments years later.

"We want to assure the public that we do not seek restitution through tax refund offset in cases when the debt in question was established prior to the debtor turning 18 years of age," Social Security spokesman Mark Hinkle said in an email. "Also, we do not use tax refund offset to collect the debt of a person's relative. We only use it to collect the overpaid benefits the person received for himself or herself."

Hinkle said the debt collection could be waived if the person was without fault and repayment would "deprive the person of income needed for ordinary living expenses or would be unfair for another reason."



OONJERAH - We are too dumb to live and smart enough to wipe ourselves out.
"You, who live in any kind of comfort or convenience, do not know how these people can survive these things, do you? They will endure because there is no immediate escape from endurance. Some will die, the rest must live."

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:38 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Well, I see Geezer has no answer to that egregious overreach by the Treasury, thanks to Oba.... BUSH.

Also, Geezer, the discussion continues in the "ideal world" thread.

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 8:40 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Always
Be
Taking

Laws which started out small usually carry on and expand, under further administrations. What the hell difference does it make if it started in '08, when the Dems had the House ? Just because a law started out under one party ( telephones for people in rural areas ) doesn't mean we need to carry on and expand on it today ( free Obama phones today )


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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:15 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, I see Geezer has no answer to that egregious overreach by the Treasury, thanks to Oba.... BUSH.



Hmm.

Law passed in 2008. Who had majorities in the House and Senate in 2008? When did the SSA and Treasury start collecting? Who's President and head of the Executive Branch when they did?


"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:37 AM

STORYMARK


Did Bush have the power to veto? Would you wingnuts be throwing a hissy fit if Obama had NOT followed the law as passed and written?




"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 11:52 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Because Bush apparently wasn't responsible for - well - ANYthing!

So, to go further - what DO you hold Bush accountable for, Geezer?

The largest failure of US intelligence under his watch on 9/11? Would that be a good place to start? Just wondering.



OONJERAH - We are too dumb to live and smart enough to wipe ourselves out.
"You, who live in any kind of comfort or convenience, do not know how these people can survive these things, do you? They will endure because there is no immediate escape from endurance. Some will die, the rest must live."

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Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:06 PM

JONGSSTRAW


Quote:

Originally posted by AURaptor:

Just because a law started out under one party ( telephones for people in rural areas ) doesn't mean we need to carry on and expand on it today ( free Obama phones today )


It does for Democrats, especially for Obama. The more the Federal Govt. controls everyone and everything, the more power and money they consolidate in Washington. Republicans, with few exceptions, are right there with 'em.

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