my friend was adopted when she was 7 years old...apparently her parents received money for her from social security that she knew nothing about until she applied for her own benefit at age 62 and they told her she would have to repay the money....this seems wrong on so many levels...I have never heard of such a scam....why in the world would she have to repay money they received? thank you.?

Hi,

I assume that your friend qualified for Social Security child's benefits when she was a child. Child benefits can be paid to children on the record of a parent who is either deceased or eligible for Social Security retirement or disability benefits. Children can receive such benefits until they reach age 18 or even later if they qualify as a full time student or are disabled.

If your friend was eligible for child's benefits, those benefits would likely have been paid to her parents on her behalf at least until she reached age 18. Her parents would have been required to use such benefits for your friend's needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. As a result, even if your friend didn't receive those Social Security benefits in cash, the presumption is that she would have received the benefit of those funds in the form of support.

Normally, benefits received as a child would not need to be repaid unless the benefit payments were incorrect for some reason. For example, incorrect payments can occur if the parent on whose record the child was drawing benefits should not have been entitled to benefits for some reason, or if the child was paid for a period of time that they didn't actually qualify for benefits. I don't know what might have caused the incorrect benefit payments in your friend's case, but if incorrect benefits were paid and not returned they can be recovered from future benefits payable to the overpaid person or to other beneficiaries who received benefits on the same record.

Other than repaying the overpayment in question, your friend basically has 2 options. One, she can file an appeal if she doesn't think that there was an overpayment or if she thinks the amount of the overpayment is incorrect (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf). Or, she could file for a waiver (forgiveness) of the overpayment if she was a) without fault in causing the overpayment, and b) she is either financially unable to repay the overpayment or recovery of the overpayment would be unfair for a reason specified in the Social Security regulations (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202250150).

Best, Jerry