Federal government seized the tax refund of Mary Grice four weeks ago. What happened was that in 1960 when she was 4 years old her father died and her mother got Social Security survivors benefits. In 1977 there was apparently an overpayment. So naturally now the government came after her now for the overpayment (there was a change in the law 3 years ago allowing collection of older debts).
What craziness!
Did you notice a link on the same page to another article, in which the acting Social Security commissioner said “I have directed an immediate halt to further referrals under the Treasury Offset Program to recover debts owed to the agency that are 10 years old and older pending a thorough review of our responsibility and discretion under the current law."
Will death be avoidable next?
By far the most disturbing part of the article is not that they’re trying to collect decades-old debts from children of deceased taxpayers, but that lack of records and their own uncertainty don’t seem to slow down the money grab:
Multiple cases where the agency isn’t sure what happened and can’t prove it, but by God, wants some money.
If possible, it gets worse:
If I’m reading that right, they seized more than they were owed and only returned the excess to which they were clearly not entitled under the pressure of public scrutiny. That would be infuriating.