By JON
LENDER | The Hartford Courant | Published: September 20, 2019
HARTFORD,
Conn. (Tribune News Service) — Bill Small of Rocky Hill got a jolt this past
March when the Social Security Administration (SSA) notified him in a letter
that it had overpaid his wife, Bess, during two decades of disbursing her
monthly benefit. And so, now that he and his wife are 85 years old and she has
been diagnosed with dementia, the SSA is demanding that he repay a total of
$38,192 on her behalf.
“You
have no idea how this happened, when they tell you ‘we’ve been overpaying your
wife for 22 years, and now we want you to pay us back,’ ” Small said.
The
retired Air Force colonel, who during a 28-year career piloted multiengine
military aircraft all over the world and served in Vietnam, says the government
admits it made a mistake and that he and his wife of 63 years are blameless. He
asked in June that the SSA waive its demand for repayment.
But on
Wednesday, an SSA representative told him during a personal conference in
Hartford that his request is being denied.
Now his
last resort will be an appeal to an administrative judge, also in Hartford.
That hearing is yet to be scheduled.
Small
said he still hasn’t received an explanation of what specific error by the SSA
resulted in the overpayment, as well how it happened and when it began. (He
said he doesn’t know how long the overpayments were happening, but if they
spanned the entire 22 years, they would have averaged around $145 a month to
reach the $38,192 total.)
However,
what’s been made clear to him recently (and again on Wednesday, during his
meeting with a SSA representative at 960 Main St. in Hartford) is that even if
such an overpayment isn’t a recipient’s fault, SSA still will order him or her
to repay it — if the recipient has the means to do so. He said the government
representative told him that this same thing has happened, in even greater
overpayment amounts, to other people who were not to blame.
“To
approve the waiver of an overpayment we must be able to determine that the
individual is without fault in causing the overpayment, and repayment would cause
an undue hardship,” Kevin Reino, an SSA public affairs specialist in the
agency’s regional office in Boston, said in describing the SSA’s general
policy.
Small
said he and his wife meet the first criterion — it wasn’t their doing or their
fault — but not the second. He said they own their home with no mortgage and
have years of savings, but even though he has the means, he still doesn’t
believe he should have to pay the $38,192 because “we didn’t make the error.”
Small
was told Wednesday that the SSA’s position is that when it discovers such
overpayment errors, it has a responsibility to protect the solvency of the
national fund by recovering the money if possible.
Asked
about that, Small — who served as executive officer for three major generals
during his Air Force career that included bomber-refueling flights out of bases
in Maine and Newfoundland — said he couldn’t explain his position further
“except to repeat myself, to say the person who committed [the error] is
responsible for it.”
Small
contacted Government Watch in August about his situation, which he said could
“absolutely” happen to anyone.
He
provided copies of correspondence between him and the SSA, which addresses him
by his given name of John W. Small. (His middle name is William, and he’s
always been called “Bill” to distinguish him from his father who also was named
John.) Small invited a reporter to go with him to his meeting at the Social Security
office Wednesday. The SSA said The Courant could not listen to the meeting
because of privacy laws, and provided the phone number for Reino in Boston.
Reino
would not comment Thursday on Small’s statements about the SSA’s error
concerning him and his wife, citing privacy laws.
When
Reino was asked if his agency has any general statistics on how many cases like
this it encounters every year across the country, he responded in an email that
“this data is not readily available.”
Asked
how long recipients are given to make repayment in cases like this, Reino said,
“In general, we request overpayments be repaid within thirty-six months.
However, the local office can work with people on a case-by-case basis if that
timeframe would cause undue hardship.”
Small
said that in his wife’s case, the government told him it intended to start
withholding her $533 monthly benefit starting this year, and to resume those
payments in 2025, but he had asked (and SSA agreed) that the payments not be
discontinued until a final decision is made on his appeal.
After
Small retired from the Air Force in 1983 he educated and qualified himself as a
real estate appraiser, running his own business until he retired from that in
1996. Both he and his wife, who have a daughter, son and two grown
granddaughters, began receiving regular Social Security retirement benefits at
age 62.
Just
like all other new Social Security benefits recipients, they were informed by
letter how much they were entitled to, and that amount was direct deposited with
their bank. There were periodic letters announcing adjustments to the amounts
of their benefits, but Small said there was never any major fluctuation that
would indicate an overpayment.
"I
had no idea that the monthly amount sent to me was an overpayment,” he wrote in
his June request for the government waiver. “I didn’t decide what payment we
should get.
“My
position is that she did not know she was overpaid. No contact from SSA was
made for 22 years telling her that there was a problem. She did not cause the
overpayment and is not responsible for the overpayment. I write this letter due
to her having been diagnosed in 2018 as having dementia and therefore unable to
understand any of this.”
jlender@courant.com
©2019
The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)
Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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