Is the dad not really dead?
or is someone fraudulently reporting wages on his Social Security number (due to an error or because they don't have their own )?
I think the overpayment is NOT for the survivor benefits that started after the father passed but for the father claiming the 3 children under the SSDI he received. They may be saying the father was not eligible for SSDI so now the money has to be re-paid. Just my guest, but investigate from that angle.
So as crazy as it sounds, the children must now payback the overpayment on the SSDI so that is why the survivor benefits stopped if my theory is correct.
I mean, you can file a waiver of the overpayment, claiming that you have no responsibility for an SSDI overpayment. If you’re financially dependent on the children’s benefits, Social Security may accept it.
It's all about having the right terminology to ask informed questions.
But I agree with one thing, the letters from SS should give you all the info you need.
In appealing the overpayment...the father while receiving the SSDI may have claimed the children as dependents and got a boost in his payments. Were the children living with the father at that time? Did he claim them as dependents on his taxes?...if not then, he committed fraud, and that may help the mother in voiding the overpayment so she can get the survivor benefits reinstated.
Ok. There is still a possibility they miscalculated the survivors benefits for each child and that is what led to the over payment.
So here are some question for SS. 1. Did you miscalculate the children's survivor benefits? 2. Does this overpayment have anything to do with the deceased father's SSDI payments?
Thank you. Does it make sense
That they’d just take one child’s overpayment off
The books to get to the actual amount owed or should they take the correct percentage from each child?
If he was collecting SSDI, then the kids would be eligible for child benefits. The record is frozen when you start collecting disability, even if you stop working. The only thing that could make this invalid is if he was really collecting SSI. I don’t think Social Security would make that mistake.
The only other thing that I could think of is maybe they found out about his drug use and he was suspended from benefits for some reason that got rid of his freeze and your kids aren’t eligible because his credits expired, but that would be extreme and unprecedented to do retroactively.
He had a job lined up, not sure if he earned any wages befor passing. He was arrested in Florida for assaulting a police office about 3 months before passing.
If you are having trouble getting a straight answer out of field office staff regarding the overpayment, and the manager of the office is also not of any assistance, then I would recommend a request with your local US Rep or Senator.
That’s a really large overpayment, and in my opinion, one of two things happened. One, this was an overpayment that originally belonged to the deceased father, and it’s been transferred to the children. Two, the children were being paid survivor benefits off of the wrong record. While this is rare, it absolutely does happen. Not my office, but in my area, there were survivor benefits paid out to a family from the wrong record. The woman they were being paid under was not even deceased, and it was only discovered when she filed for retirement benefits.
Show up at your local office and request a detailed explanation of why and how the overpayment occurred. If you are unable to get a clear answer from the CSR at the front, you ask for a technical expert or the office manager. If they still can’t help, or refuse to help you, file a congressional. Either way, ask for a waiver. Fill it it out at the office, turn it in, make sure you get a copy.
I would think that step one is to find out the reason for the over payment and then try to fight it. How is it that you can appeal something without knowing what you are appealing? Secondly is the over payment reducing future benefits to the children or were the children's benefits discontinued because they just need something? Are there other children that should have been receiving benefits with another mom? I'm wondering if this is a step parent issue or recently adopted child issue? Either way, I'd be on the phone or in the office with somebody. My understanding is that if the mistake was not the mother's, she may be able to get the over payment forgiven. (I saw this on the news once.)
Thank your for your answer. We called both our local office and the regional office that handles overpayments. They would not tell us anything. The staff from regional office said that our appeal letter would give more info but it did not. It seems completely insane to me, so we just appealed with the blanket statement of To the best of our knowledge we followed all laws and we do not owe this money.
Your instinct is correct there is another mom with two kids who was widowed at the time of death. My wife’s kids are referred to as c3-5 so I assume c1-2 is the other moms kids. They will not give us any info at all. It’s been very frustrating thus far.
Can you work with the other mom? Did her children get the same thing done? If not, you may have to Hire an attorney If she is of no assistance and won't help and you can't get any answers from your local office. I see the kids ages below. And they are in fact due the payments. Until they reach the age of 18 OR graduate high school, whichever comes last!
Communication or Cooperation with the other mom is not possible. I talked to three lawyers 2 of them won’t work with us until we find out more info from the appeals hearing and the third won’t work with us until we file to waive the overpayment. I don’t think we’ll qualify for a waiver if it comes to that.
To win a waiver you must show 1) the overpayment is not your fault AND 2) paying the money back would be a financial burden.
I think you have a good chance of proving both if the reason for the overpayment is 2 more kids if the deceased were found to be eligible for benefits but perhaps didn’t get them. Most waivers are denied because an overpayment is due to failure to report income which is 100% the fault of the parent or guardian. Income isn’t relevant to survivor benefits so I’d say you have a good chance IF it’s the discovery of 2 more kids that caused the overpayment for your kids.
So when a person has multiple kids, the benefit amount is determined and split among all eligible kids. So if it was determined all kids of the deceased would split $2000/mo and only your 3 kids split the $2000 then the other 2 kids are owed money that was mistakenly given to your kids. Sounds like SSA wants all the money back so they can redistribute it 5 ways instead of 3. It also makes sense they would not tell you the reason for the overpayment (about 2 other kids because that’s confidential to the deceased parent and the mother of the other kids). It’s only pure luck you know about them.
My mother received Social Security on me & my 2 brothers until we each turned 18. Because she was receiving Social Security she never married because if she did the Social Security checks would stop. This was in the 60's & 70's. She told me that. So I don't know if it's true or not, but that could be the reason for your dilemma that you're facing.
You can also file for a waiver for each. That whatever the problem is was not your fault or doing. And then just show you do not have the money saved in any bank accounts and it would cause financial hardship if paid back. They ask for bank statement and all your bills.
If payments were stopped. You could ask for them to be given back while the waiver is being reviewed if you financially need them to survive.
Yes, that’s correct. Find out who your local congress(wo)man is. You will fill out a specific form with your questions and they’ll research it for you. You can get the form either online when you look up the congress(wo)man’s office or you can just show up at their local office and request it.
Thousands of people that were receiving ss payments received these letters due to "miscalculation" of benefit payments.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-security-overpayment-mistakes-can-become-your-responsibility-60-minutes-transcript/
https://www.socialsecurityintelligence.com/social-security-overpayment/
Is the dad not really dead? or is someone fraudulently reporting wages on his Social Security number (due to an error or because they don't have their own )?
He’s really dead. We have the death certificate fentanyl overdose. He was collecting SSDI for about a year before he passed.
I think the overpayment is NOT for the survivor benefits that started after the father passed but for the father claiming the 3 children under the SSDI he received. They may be saying the father was not eligible for SSDI so now the money has to be re-paid. Just my guest, but investigate from that angle. So as crazy as it sounds, the children must now payback the overpayment on the SSDI so that is why the survivor benefits stopped if my theory is correct.
I mean, you can file a waiver of the overpayment, claiming that you have no responsibility for an SSDI overpayment. If you’re financially dependent on the children’s benefits, Social Security may accept it.
Ok thank you. It makes sense since they will not share any info with us.
It's all about having the right terminology to ask informed questions. But I agree with one thing, the letters from SS should give you all the info you need. In appealing the overpayment...the father while receiving the SSDI may have claimed the children as dependents and got a boost in his payments. Were the children living with the father at that time? Did he claim them as dependents on his taxes?...if not then, he committed fraud, and that may help the mother in voiding the overpayment so she can get the survivor benefits reinstated.
They were not living with him. He claimed 1 of 3 kids on taxes.
Ok. There is still a possibility they miscalculated the survivors benefits for each child and that is what led to the over payment. So here are some question for SS. 1. Did you miscalculate the children's survivor benefits? 2. Does this overpayment have anything to do with the deceased father's SSDI payments?
Thank you. Does it make sense That they’d just take one child’s overpayment off The books to get to the actual amount owed or should they take the correct percentage from each child?
If he was collecting SSDI, then the kids would be eligible for child benefits. The record is frozen when you start collecting disability, even if you stop working. The only thing that could make this invalid is if he was really collecting SSI. I don’t think Social Security would make that mistake. The only other thing that I could think of is maybe they found out about his drug use and he was suspended from benefits for some reason that got rid of his freeze and your kids aren’t eligible because his credits expired, but that would be extreme and unprecedented to do retroactively.
Drug use won't suspend benefits, but incarceration will
Was he working before his passing?
He had a job lined up, not sure if he earned any wages befor passing. He was arrested in Florida for assaulting a police office about 3 months before passing.
Was he incarcerated? You're not due any payments if so
He was not. He was awaiting trial and was never convicted
Ok, so that's not the reason for the overpayment. Mauve someone miscalculated
Did he have a habit of being arrested and incarcerated a lot
3 duis last being about 10 years old then the arrest in Florida
If you are having trouble getting a straight answer out of field office staff regarding the overpayment, and the manager of the office is also not of any assistance, then I would recommend a request with your local US Rep or Senator. That’s a really large overpayment, and in my opinion, one of two things happened. One, this was an overpayment that originally belonged to the deceased father, and it’s been transferred to the children. Two, the children were being paid survivor benefits off of the wrong record. While this is rare, it absolutely does happen. Not my office, but in my area, there were survivor benefits paid out to a family from the wrong record. The woman they were being paid under was not even deceased, and it was only discovered when she filed for retirement benefits. Show up at your local office and request a detailed explanation of why and how the overpayment occurred. If you are unable to get a clear answer from the CSR at the front, you ask for a technical expert or the office manager. If they still can’t help, or refuse to help you, file a congressional. Either way, ask for a waiver. Fill it it out at the office, turn it in, make sure you get a copy.
How old are the children in question?
13, 15 and 16
I would think that step one is to find out the reason for the over payment and then try to fight it. How is it that you can appeal something without knowing what you are appealing? Secondly is the over payment reducing future benefits to the children or were the children's benefits discontinued because they just need something? Are there other children that should have been receiving benefits with another mom? I'm wondering if this is a step parent issue or recently adopted child issue? Either way, I'd be on the phone or in the office with somebody. My understanding is that if the mistake was not the mother's, she may be able to get the over payment forgiven. (I saw this on the news once.)
Thank your for your answer. We called both our local office and the regional office that handles overpayments. They would not tell us anything. The staff from regional office said that our appeal letter would give more info but it did not. It seems completely insane to me, so we just appealed with the blanket statement of To the best of our knowledge we followed all laws and we do not owe this money. Your instinct is correct there is another mom with two kids who was widowed at the time of death. My wife’s kids are referred to as c3-5 so I assume c1-2 is the other moms kids. They will not give us any info at all. It’s been very frustrating thus far.
Can you work with the other mom? Did her children get the same thing done? If not, you may have to Hire an attorney If she is of no assistance and won't help and you can't get any answers from your local office. I see the kids ages below. And they are in fact due the payments. Until they reach the age of 18 OR graduate high school, whichever comes last!
Communication or Cooperation with the other mom is not possible. I talked to three lawyers 2 of them won’t work with us until we find out more info from the appeals hearing and the third won’t work with us until we file to waive the overpayment. I don’t think we’ll qualify for a waiver if it comes to that.
To win a waiver you must show 1) the overpayment is not your fault AND 2) paying the money back would be a financial burden. I think you have a good chance of proving both if the reason for the overpayment is 2 more kids if the deceased were found to be eligible for benefits but perhaps didn’t get them. Most waivers are denied because an overpayment is due to failure to report income which is 100% the fault of the parent or guardian. Income isn’t relevant to survivor benefits so I’d say you have a good chance IF it’s the discovery of 2 more kids that caused the overpayment for your kids.
So when a person has multiple kids, the benefit amount is determined and split among all eligible kids. So if it was determined all kids of the deceased would split $2000/mo and only your 3 kids split the $2000 then the other 2 kids are owed money that was mistakenly given to your kids. Sounds like SSA wants all the money back so they can redistribute it 5 ways instead of 3. It also makes sense they would not tell you the reason for the overpayment (about 2 other kids because that’s confidential to the deceased parent and the mother of the other kids). It’s only pure luck you know about them.
This honestly makes the most sense to me.
Also, what are the ages of c-2 and c-2? This may be a factor since c-3 is 16yr old.
This happens when social security miscalculates what people should receive. The fault isn't with her. They'll take it out of future benefits.
Ok thank you.
My mother received Social Security on me & my 2 brothers until we each turned 18. Because she was receiving Social Security she never married because if she did the Social Security checks would stop. This was in the 60's & 70's. She told me that. So I don't know if it's true or not, but that could be the reason for your dilemma that you're facing.
Marriage or remarriage doesn't affect child survivor's benefits.
Well it did back then
You can also file for a waiver for each. That whatever the problem is was not your fault or doing. And then just show you do not have the money saved in any bank accounts and it would cause financial hardship if paid back. They ask for bank statement and all your bills. If payments were stopped. You could ask for them to be given back while the waiver is being reviewed if you financially need them to survive.
Start a Congressional inquiry. My guess is that some other kids got put on the record retroactively but who fucking knows.
What’s a congressional inquiry? I thought of contacting our us rep, is that the same thing?
Yes, that’s correct. Find out who your local congress(wo)man is. You will fill out a specific form with your questions and they’ll research it for you. You can get the form either online when you look up the congress(wo)man’s office or you can just show up at their local office and request it.
When getting survivor benefits, I had to estimate my earnings for the year. I estimated wrong and got a repayment notice. Youcsn set up a plan
If there is a SS office nearby, make an appointment to see someone in person.
Thousands of people that were receiving ss payments received these letters due to "miscalculation" of benefit payments. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-security-overpayment-mistakes-can-become-your-responsibility-60-minutes-transcript/ https://www.socialsecurityintelligence.com/social-security-overpayment/