Posted on 09/26/2009 7:28:08 AM PDT by reaganaut1
A federal judge approved a civil-court settlement requiring the Social Security Administration to repay $500 million to 80,000 recipients whose benefits it suspended after deeming them fugitives.
The supposed fugitives include a disabled widow with a previously suspended driver's license, a quadriplegic man in a nursing home and a Nevada grandmother mistaken for a rapist.
They were among at least 200,000 elderly and disabled people who lost their benefits in recent years under what the agency called the "Fugitive Felon" program. Launched in 1996 and extended to Social Security disability and old-age benefits in 2005, the program aimed to save taxpayers money by barring the payment of Social Security benefits to people "fleeing to avoid prosecution."
But some federal courts in recent years have concluded that most people the agency identified as fleeing felons were neither fleeing nor felons. The problem: Social Security employees relied on an operations manual stating that anyone with a warrant outstanding is a fugitive felon, whether the person is actually fleeing or attempting to avoid being captured.
The Social Security Administration, which neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement, declined to comment.
The National Senior Citizens Law Center, an advocacy group for the elderly and disabled, sued the Social Security Administration in an Oakland, Calif., federal court last year on behalf of people denied benefits, and asserted that most warrants -- some decades old -- were for minor offenses and most people were unaware they existed.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Social Security is broke because it pays out to people who have never worked a day in their life in this country. They go to their embassy with their work record and collect FULL benefits. They can even go back to their home country, and continue having US pay for it.
How many real fugitive felons were denied benefits under this rule? Social Security is notorious for it’s “one size fits all” rules and this is another one, but you always have to remember how many people are trying to scam their way into a permanent monthly check from Uncle Sugar and realize that they have to be tough.
We had a problem when my wife became eligible for medicare, and spent several months trying to find someone in the Social Security offices who could fix it, including a couple of personal visits to the local office.
No luck.
Finally, we contacted both our senators and our congressman, and it was fixed. You’d think that with several hundred thousand people working for the angency they could manage to deal with an occasional problem when it is pointed out to them.
Good luck when these folks are running your healthcare.
As Lord Acton said, "Power lets you do good things and unlimited lets you do even more good." Must be true, I read it on the internet.
lol maybe they cant get their money from al gores green project that we shucked out millions for to greenland...can we get benefits from greenland?
Funny how we deny SS benefits but not government pensions.
And this is the same government that so many people think can run Health Care?
Beyond stupidity.
Un-friggin-believable.
Although this abuse certainly should be stopped, it is not the primary factor for Social Security’s problems. The primary reason is that politicians have spent excess payroll taxes. If we had enacted a system of personal accounts in the mid 80s when the payroll tax increased, there would be savings to pay for most of the benefits. Unfortunately, it seems to late to correct Social Security’s ills. Only an economic firestorm will cause any changes. We are headed for an entitlement meltdown on top of an energy meltdown and probably other meltdowns.
From a relative who is a teacher, some teachers
can work one day and receive SS.
I had to work years and years.
Social Security is broke because it pays out to people who have never worked a day in their life in this country. They go to their embassy with their work record and collect FULL benefits. They can even go back to their home country, and continue having US pay for it.No. I don't think so.
I came up with NOT Eligible.
Actually, just this month my mother, a retired teacher, had an almost identical problem with her pension. I had to untangle it and it was extremely unpleasant.
From a relative who is a teacher, some teachers can work one day and receive SS.
No, that's wrong.
As there's something missing / misleading from what your relative told you.
Use the Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool and see for yourself. Make up any dates or figures you want. Teachers are nothing special as far as the SSA is concerned. They may as well be Burger Flippers at McDonald's.
I know. Our youngest daughter is a Full Time 'TA' and works with 'Special Needs' kids, and is in the *evil* NEA. She gets squat - even has her own Health Insurance Policy. The NEA's was more expensive.
There's a LOT of misinformation on what Teachers get from being in the NEA. From their pay, benefits and to being 'dismissed' (Fired).
My close relative is a fifth grade teacher and she has no reason to lie.
Sorry, I’ll take her word that she will get SS when the time comes
before any other info.
Maybe some teachers don’t get squat. Maybe some do.
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