Lori Falce: False promises of learning from Social Security mistakes

I am not old enough to retire. That doesn’t mean I am unfamiliar with the Social Security Administration.

My father-in-law lived with us for several years after he suffered a heart attack. My husband received disability because of a constellation of health issues.

I am a woman and I got married, so I got to experience the special hell of changing my name. PennDOT decided in its infinite wisdom to put a hyphen between my maiden and married name, something I didn’t ask it to do. When I then went to the Social Security office to get a card with my new name, it was something akin to an Abbott and Costello routine with the vague suggestion I might be an identity thief or possibly a terrorist.

“And your name is?”

“Falce.”

“False?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, it’s False?”

“No, it’s Falce. But it’s pronounced False.”

But my history with Social Security starts much earlier. I was just over a year old when my father died. That meant from about 18 months to 18 years old, I received survivor benefits for the years my Marine veteran dad paid into the system.

It was not a lot. He was only 23 when he died, so he hadn’t paid in much. Survivors get a portion of what their parent would have gotten at retirement. It was enough to help my mom keep the lights on and the water flowing while she went to nursing school.

But then a mistake was made. Social Security overpaid. My mother, who could tell you with pinpoint accuracy what her bank balance should be on any day, noticed it immediately. She called the office. They said there was no problem. Just cash it. It’s fine. She did, but she documented everything and set aside the overage.

It happened again. She called again. The cycle repeated over and over. She called our U.S. senator, who happened to be former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. His office advised to continue to call Social Security and document the outcome.

After months and months, the administration realized the error. My mother’s meticulous records proved the fault was not on our end. However, repayment would have to be made — and the government demanded interest. No, they did not want the money Mom had put aside for exactly this day. Instead, my benefits were garnished for years to come.

The repayment was spread over more than a decade. I would not receive a full check again until I was 17 years old, about two months before I became a legal adult and the checks stopped.

Starting this month, the Social Security Administration’s policy for overpayment recovery changes. If a recipient is overpaid, checks will not be garnished in part. They will be taken in full — “clawed back” — until the overpayment is corrected. It is being called “clawback cruelty” by some, like former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley.

The cruel part is that the clawback punishes a recipient when the error may well be the government’s fault.

The change comes at a time when the Trump administration is planning to close offices and demand more services happen in person rather than online. The combination of fewer offices but more face-to-face appointments seems like a recipe for mistakes. If those mistakes include overpayments, they will leave the elderly, widows, the disabled and kids who have lost parents eating the cost of something they didn’t do.

In a memo to staff obtained by NBC News, acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek spoke of recent problems in the agency.

“Personally, I have made some mistakes, which makes me human like you. I promise you this, I will continue to make mistakes, but I will learn from them,” he said.

I agree that mistakes will continue to be made, but like my name, the idea that they will be a learning experience sounds false.