A class action lawsuit has been filed against Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue, alleging that more than 100,000 people have had their benefits stopped, unjustly, by the federal government.
One of the initial plaintiffs had her benefits stopped based on an outstanding warrant issued in 1980 in Miami-Dade county, Florida for a person with the same name. The plaintiff in California never committed the crime - the federal agency has the wrong person. The federal government is allegedly stopping the payments based on computer matching only, without verifying identity.
The suit demands that the agency reconsider the eligibility of anyone who gets any of several types of Social Security payments and has been cut off under the "fleeing to avoid prosecution" rule. The suit was filed in the federal court of San Francisco, and asks the judge to prohibit the federal agency from stopping any more Social Security payments to people "fleeing to avoid prosecution" for a felony, which makes beneficiaries ineligible under a 1996 law.
