Hi Larry,. I received a letter from my bank today that came from Department of the teasury bureau of the fiscal service. It had notice of reclamation stamped on it in the upper left hand corner. It stated that the government had received information that the person named on this notice is deceased. The deceased is my Mother and she died December 30th of 2016. They said that her social security benefits ended with her death and that they must recover all payments made after her death. The last payment was direct deposited on the 3rd of January 2017. They went to the bank where her accounts were and tried to collect the debt. Her accounts have been closed since last June. I use the same bank and in the notice I had 2 slips stating that my bank deducted money out of my accounts to pay this debt. Is this legal and isn't there a time period that they have to ask for this to be paid back? Also shouldn'I have been notified that they wanted this paid back and can they take this out of my accounts without my knowledge?

Hi,

I'm sorry for your loss.

Unfortunately, I can't answer all of your questions. What I can tell you is that your mother would not have been due the check paid by direct deposit on January 3 2017 if she died on December 30 2016. Ideally, it would either not have been delivered or should have been returned to the Treasury Department by her bank.

The rules on recovery of incorrect payments vary, but suffice to say that if you made the last withdrawal from the now closed account to which the incorrect payment was deposited then Social Security would seek recovery from you. And, to my knowledge there is no time limit within which they can seek recovery. Beyond that, though, I am not familiar with either the banking rules nor Treasury Department rules governing potential methods of recovery.

Best, Jerry