HI Larry,
My question is about payback of last payment after death. I am the representative payee of my deceased brother's social security. He died in May 2022 and received his last payment in June 2022. This payment needs to be paid back. A federal hold was placed on his account for that payment. Social Security requires me to pay back the payment but I don't have access to the money due to federal hold. Every month since July I have talked to Social Security and was told they would retrieve the payment. Mean while they have never retrieved the money and it is in the processing center. They assigned the debt to my social security in November and are getting payments from my social security. I have been told not to pay it off as they should retrieve it but it is stuck in never never land. I was wondering if you have any idea on how to get them to retrieve it or if I pay it back on how to get the federal hold off his bank account. He has not other assets and there is no probate for him. The current federal hold is until 2099 (I get this info from the bank). If you have any ideas on how to resolve this I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi. I'm sorry, but I don't know of a solution to your problem. My expertise is limited to Social Security benefits, and I have no knowledge of banking rules and frozen bank accounts. What I can tell you is that it's actually the U.S. Treasury Department, not Social Security, that is responsible for retrieving Social Security payments that were directly deposited to a person's bank account. Once Social Security notifies the Treasury Dept. of a person's death, the Treasury Dept. is supposed to coordinate with the bank involved to retrieve the incorrect payment.

The only thing I could suggest trying is to contact the offices of your U.S. congressional representative or one of your U.S. senators. In many cases, an inquiry sent to a federal agency by a member of Congress on behalf of a constituent can get expeditious results.

Best, Jerry