Social Security won't forgive Arlington man's decades-old overpayment: 'Uncle Sam will get his money'
ARLINGTON, Texas - A business law attorney says it looks like the Social Security Administration is going too far trying to collect an overpayment dating back to 1978.
The SSA recently came under fire for working to collect billions of dollars mistakenly paid out.
Congress created the SSA as a way to provide economic security for retired workers.
But Jimmie Byrd says the agency is hurting his security by trying to collect on an overpayment for $1,400 made to his mother 45 years ago.
"It says if we do not receive your refund in 30 days, we plan to cover the overpayment by withholding your full benefit," he explained.
After FOX 4 started asking questions, Byrd received a phone call from an SSA employee. He recorded the call.
"It will stay with you until it is collected, in other words," the employee said.
Byrd's mother received Social Security benefits for Byrd after his father died when he was 4 years old.
At age 17, Byrd started working, and the employee says his work disqualified his mother from receiving the benefit.
"I was just calling to let you know what caused the overpayment back in 1978. It was the work that caused it," the SSA employee said.
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"I file my taxes every year," Byrd said. "Y'all couldn't have found this earlier?"
"It is the government, so it is Uncle Sam. He will get his money," the employee said.
Business and constitutional law attorney David Coale says just because the government can collect on old debt, doesn't mean it should.
"It is very odd that so many years, decades later, they are trying to come back and get a repayment," he said. "In typical business cases, the statute of limitations is four years. Maybe a little longer if some problems discovering the facts. This is decades."
Coale says the law is set up with a statute of limitations in the business world for a reason.
"The record that must exist to support this claim can only be stale documents," he said.
And the administration ultimately answers to Congress.
"The Social Security Administration doesn't have a mandate to do anything it wants to. It was created by Congress with specific mandates to do specific things," Coale said. "The ultimate legal test is are the regulation advancing the goals or are they undermining the goals?
Byrd says he and his wife live paycheck to paycheck with a mortgage to pay.
"We stay up at night worrying about this," he said.
The SSA regional communications director did provide a lengthy statement late Tuesday afternoon.
The statement does not explain why the agency would try to collect a decades-old overpayment made to one's mother, but the spokeswoman did say, "Through proposed rulemaking, we plan to propose to simplify our rules for how a person can demonstrate eligibility for a waiver of recovery of an overpayment debt."