My sister is the beautiful age of 62! That is the magic number in Social Security. If you so desire, you can apply for your Social Security benefits at age 62. You will give up a certain amount by starting to take them early,but it’s a crap shoot. Who is going to live the longest, you or the Social Security Administration? My bet is on you. So, if your situation makes sense to take your benefits early, take your money and run. This is exactly what my beautiful 62 year-old sister attempted to do. Oh but little did she know this was shark-infested waters.
She trots herself off to the office of Social Security:
“Hello, beautiful 62 year-old sister! Can I help you?”
“Why yes, I would like to apply for my Social Security benefits!”, she says with aplomb and great delight.
“Oh…sorry you can’t do that here.”
“Excuse me, is this not the sacred Social Security Administration office?”
“Why yes, yes it is..but you need an appointment. I don’t have an appointment here for “my beautiful 62 year-old sister”,but you can apply online from the comfort of your own home!”
“Well, I did not know that. I will go home and apply online, which I am CERTAIN will be easy and have absolutely no glitches! Yay government!”
You see it coming, don’t you? Well at least you THINK you do. In fact, she goes home and applies on line quite successfully. She even receives a phone call from Social Security with a question about her place of birth, which is seemingly cleared up with no real problems. The representative says, “everything looks fine, it should process in a few months.”
Two days later, on a Saturday,( because I am absolutely convinced that all Social Security mail is purposely retained to be mailed for receipt on Saturday so that you can’t talk to anyone about it) she receives a letter at her childhood home in her maiden name, where our Mom still lives after 41 years, addressed to my beautiful 17 year-old sister, from 45 years ago, saying :
Since my sister has no recollection of ever receiving Social Security, hasn’t lived at that address for 40 years, and hasn’t even had that name for at least 24 years, this is a conundrum. Our best guess, since we can’t call anyone for at least two days,(and if you have EVER tried to call Social Security on a Monday morning, you know it will be three or four days before you can talk to anyone……because EVERYONE who got a crazy letter on Saturday is on that phone first thing Monday morning) is that when her mother died, her father was receiving Social Security benefits for her for about a year, and likely was overpaid by one month. But her father, my step-father died in 1998, and my mother, her step-mother has lived there since 1972 and never saw any Social Security letters addressed to my sister.
Lucky for the beautiful 62 year-old, the letter was sent to our Mom after 45 years, SINCE IT HAD HER SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER PLASTERED ALL OVER IT. Is it whistle-blowing to call these idiots out as they are randomly sending out letters with Social Security numbers likely to people who have moved, are dead, or maybe even in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Would one have to move to Russia to bring this to the world’s attention a la Mr. Snowden?
So we do call Social Security on Monday afternoon and hardly wait at all for that annoying MUZAK to stop. We speak to a delightful young lady who informs us that a new law has just been passed foregoing any previous statutes of limitations on the Social Security Office’s right to collect on overpayments. Ever. Forever. Ad inifinitum. So they sent out letters to everyone they could come up with to whatever address they had to see if they could collect this lost money. And each and every letter has the alleged recipient’s name AND FULL SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
In my sister’s case, the nice lady said that since her claim number on the letter had the letter “C” in it, it means she received money as a child and they want it back. And even though, admittedly, she probably never saw that money or even knew it was coming to her. She had to pay it back. And if she didn’t pay it back, as the letter sent to her address of 45 years ago clearly states, any income tax refund she may be entitled to in the future will be taken to absolve her of this debt.
Soooooooooooooo, not only are they generously giving out Social Security numbers to random strangers for the identity-theft taking, they will likely take your income tax return money and you won’t have a clue as to what the hell is going on.
REALLY????? FORTY-FIVE YEARS AGO I OWED YOU $195.89 AND YOU LOOKED SO HARD FOR ME THAT IT TOOK YOU THIS LONG TO FIND ME AND SPREAD MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER TO THE WIND?!?!
Yay government!
Perhaps someone at Social Security should read the Forbes Article below!
YOU JUST GOTTA LAUGH……
Cathy Sikorski
I had heard about this case already, but I love the way you wrote it. We are having our own bout of Social Security nonsense from signing up for Medicare. We have been to the Social Security office 3 times now, and are currently wondering whether it will get straightened out. We are told we have to wait 30 days.
Ooo I am often..yet never surprised that there’s always a next story. Perhaps my NEXT most beautiful 61 year old sister will let me share hers soon!
Love it! You’re like a genius. Too bad you don’t work for Social Security
Shouldn’t we call our U.S. Representatives and “suggest” that the Social Security Administration find another way to contact those of us that owe them money…like “look up” current address in the system utilizing the Social Security number and IRS tax form that all of us complete each year (the form asks you to complete a line with your address and social security number)…looks like this goes back to the article “just do your job”.
I love these stories – crazy as they are.
And weirdly, there’s more to come.