An Interesting Social Security Retirement Story -

[GailL1]

 Interesting Social Security Scenario - What’s your take on this?  👍  or  👎

 A (breadwinner) parent divorced a real deadbeat parent after 14 years of marriage -and (2) kids.  Neither ever remarried.  

The deadbeat never worked a reportable income job after the divorce, so, of course, they earned no Social Security benefit on their own earnings record and never paid any child support either.  Called the kids every few years as proof of life.  That’s it -   

With the Kids, now older but not yet out of the nest, but almost, the breadwinning parent decides to retire at their full retirement age.  Their financial success at their job thru the years produced a good Social Security Retirement Benefit and they had also been able to save for their retirement via retirement accounts and other investment/savings.  They had also paid off the house which took a lot of stress off the monthly budget.   They received the house (and mortgage) as part of the divorce settlement.  They, as well they should, felt pretty secure in their decision to retire.  They had done well in the single life that was built.  

The deadbeat parent somehow found out about the retirement of their successful EX and filed for Divorced Spousal Benefits and was granted 50% of the EX’s PIA benefit for this benefit - this parent was also at their full retirement age so the full 50% was granted for the Spousal Benefit.  

Of course, this did anger the breadwinner parent even though what they would be receiving as their SS Retirement Benefit was still the same - there is no offset to a primary insured for a Spousal Benefit - divorced or regular.  Guess it was just the principal / ethics of the benefit in their feelings that really bothered them about this. 

Being the smart and extremely resilient person and parent they were, they consulted with a lawyer and figured out that since the deadbeat parent now had an [attachable] income (the Social Security Divorced Spousal benefit), it was now proper for the responsible parent to file for back child support.  👏

They filed and got it - per Section 459 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 659) permits Social Security to withhold current and continuing Social Security payments to enforce  legal obligation to pay child support, alimony, or restitution.

Now the kids have a continuing resource from their dear ole deadbeat parent for their continuing education; courtesy of this action.  Responsible, retired parent feels really good about this result.  

Even though by law, this is completely legal and proper - it still affects the Social Security Trust Fund.  The responsible (now retired) parent and the kids are extremely happy.  The deadbeat parent, not so much !!  😀

SSA.gov - FAQ 04/16/2025 : Can my Social Security benefits be garnished or levied?  

Interesting how life turns out sometimes, Right?  

[papawofboo]

Sounds to wacky to be made up.

[TRL1111]

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@papawofboo wrote:

Sounds to wacky to be made up.

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The part where an ex-spouse chooses to never remarry in order to later claim social security benefits under the original spouse's social security account is a known "loophole."

That said, it's never a bad idea to link to the source for a story like this, since it wasn't positioned as a hypothetical.    "Definitely a true story" shouldn't go far these days on the internet (even though it usually does).

[GailL1]

I guess I am the source for this tale - I personally know the [responsible] parent and the kids - actually, I once knew the deadbeat too, years and years ago when they were married.  

We had long thought he was gone, never to be heard from again cause even the kids had not had their proof of life call in a few years - and then this happened.  

The deadbeat found out the responsible parent was retiring thru a mutually known old acquaintance and the old acquaintance passed the perchance meeting onto the responsible parent. So they thought something was up - (to the point that it was being expected).  

The responsible parent had no qualms about the deadbeat getting the divorced spousal benefits - and only found out afterwards about SSA being able to collect the back child support from this benefit.  

I just thought that it was a sort of payback - yes, karma - but the kids can take advantage of the funds for their continuing education.  

Funny how life turns out sometimes.

[GailL1]

Definitely a true story - 

[SereneSeagull]

I’d say Karma! And possibly stupidity on the deadbeat dads part as well.

[GailL1]

@SereneSeagull 

I was very careful to leave out any reference to which parent was which - Did I mess up somewhere in my posts to identify which parent was which ?

It is odd that you determined that the deadbeat was the dad?  Why?  

[papawofboo]

I've heard about "dead beat dad's" for years, very very seldom does a mother fall into the saying.

[GailL1]

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@papawofboo wrote:

I've heard about "dead beat dad's" for years, very very seldom does a mother fall into the saying.

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But there are exceptions even to stats - but I think you are right that it is what we hear and see perhaps from media that determines some of our assumptions.  

Wonder how much this happens in many areas - a lot, I think.  Perhaps even a basis for some of our own predisposition - maybe even some underlying discriminations.  

We are affected by so much in our society - 

[SereneSeagull]

So you piqued my curiosity and the assumptions I made.  I’ve checked on site, The Annie E. Casey Foundation.  A blog that has statistics listed. Interestingly, according to data listed there. It’s the fathers they say statistically, who do not get the child support they are ordered to get from the mother.  I’ll look at more sites, but very interesting 

I like how you framed this discussion Gail.  Very thought provoking!

[GailL1]

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@SereneSeagull wrote:

. . . . . The Annie E. Casey Foundation.  A blog that has statistics listed. Interestingly, according to data listed there. It’s the fathers they say statistically, who do not get the child support they are ordered to get from the mother.  

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Now that is interesting - 

[SereneSeagull]

lol!  Statistically speaking from years of hearing about it from others over the years.  Got me interested though in finding out what the stats are.  But yes I assumed based on what I’ve found to be true from others experiences.  Wrongly, … perhaps, but I did.  Interesting experiment though if you examine the case study and how you presented it.  Assumptions.  

[GailL1]

@SereneSeagull  - You were correct in your assumption - but I was just interested in how we think on things such as this.  Yes, we are influenced by stats even though we may not know the numbers in the stats, we, I guess, feel them by what we see in the media.  .  

Seems it would be the same with domestic abuse and who the abuser is -   

I personally know of at least one woman (mother) with a whole lot of kids that left them high and dry but the dad did step up to fill the void - he is doing a pretty good job but you can see that he is really struggling with some things or maybe I should say with the girls - he seems almost timid around them but not the boys.  

Just interesting - not trying to pick on you at all.  I think you are the norm - probably me too cause I would have had the same assumption as you.  

[SereneSeagull]

Yes, true.  But how interesting a prompt to show preconceptions.  The world has too many of them, and this was a good reminder at how things may not be what they seem.  🙂