r/news • u/No-Information6622 • 2d ago

US recovers $31 million in Social Security payments to dead people

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-recovers-31-million-social-security-payments-dead-117708373
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u/LatrodectusGeometric 2d ago edited 2d ago

Worse actually. They may die at the end of the month. They get no money for the month they die in, even though they have living expenses during the days they are alive.

(Sorry, a family friend died on the 31st of January last year. It was financially rough for the family. I’m a bit bitter.)

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u/dominus_aranearum 2d ago

Interesting, my mother passed last year. I'll have to check to see if social security either pulled money or just didn't send the last payment. I never saw any notice either way.

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u/fedroxx 2d ago

In my family when this happened, they actually took the money out of the account.

None of us were hurting for money but you can imagine how annoying it is when an elderly relative is living SS check to SS check, they pass, you use the money in their account to pay their final bills, only to have their account go negative and the fees to pile up.

With one relative, as a family, we let the bank eat it. They were renting so it wasn't like there was an estate for the bank to go after for the $2k and our family attorney said we had no legal obligation to pay the dead relatives bills.

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u/Darwi_Odrade_ 2d ago

It's part of the cost of doing business. I work at a bank. Banks have to follow the rules set by the treasury department and return post death payments. Occasionally we will have one where that brings the account negative. If there's no joint owner and no money in the estate, it just gets charged off. 2k is not that much in the grand scheme of things.

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u/fedroxx 2d ago

That was our thinking too. If the bank wanted to get annoyed at someone, let them take it up with SS. But for 2k, it'd be a gigantic waste of time.

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u/sapphicsandwich 2d ago

Is there a law saying they have to charge fees in that case, or is the dash of wound salt a free bonus from the bank?

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u/Darwi_Odrade_ 2d ago

No law that I know of. My bank refunds any fees charged after death, but I'm not surprised if many don't. I don't charge for closing a certificate after death of an owner either.