Social Security regularly recoups benefits that it alleges were paid in error over many years if not decades.
This is an uncommon and terrible policy. It is based on the abhorrent catchphrase of Social Security: Your error is our mistake.
Social Security: Heartless Recoupment of Erroneous Benefits
That results in 77 million beneficiaries living in continual terror that the payments they have been receiving for years, if not decades, would be partially or entirely taken away.
No explanation is provided in these letters. Your benefits stop if you don’t make the required payments.
You have already paid taxes on those perks, though.
If you are relying on SS benefits and would starve to death in a matter of weeks without them, they don’t seem to care.
Calls to the appeal line go ignored or get diverted. Official appeals and emails asking for justifications are ignored — for years.
Making an assistance request at a local office has no effect. Congress must enact legislation stating that errors are not recoupable unless done so within a year and following a thorough justification, including a personal hearing.
Children who obtained payments from its benefits through their parents are subject to recoupment.
It takes recipients of disabilities back. Teachers, firefighters, and cops are clawed back.
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Unfairly Targeting All Ages
Those in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, as well as persons of any age, are susceptible to its effects.
It takes at least 20 years from the moment benefits are paid until it begins to take them back.
After decades of development, Social Security coffers are shrinking, in part because of the constantly increasing number of retirees, but also because the pool of workers who are producing an income is getting smaller.
In the meantime, the American retirement age of 67 is among the highest in the world.
When that occurs, payments won’t stop altogether, but they’ll probably be reduced by about 25%.
According to a recent poll conducted by Newsweek, 29% of Americans believe the retirement age is already too high.
In a survey conducted in March by the Associated Press-NORC Center, 79 percent of participants stated that they were against cutting benefits.
Making matters worse is the fact that fewer people of working age—generally between the ages of 20 and 64—are contributing to the expense of supporting Social Security retirees.
According to the most recent forecasts, there will be 2.1 employees for every SS beneficiary in 2040, down from 3.7 in 1970.
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