"They're going to kick me out of my own home," said Karl Berger, 86 years old. Karl is a widower with no living children. When his wife died a couple of years ago, he told the Social Security Administration (SSA) to stop sending her monthly checks. The agency continued to send them. A clerk advised Karl to mail a follow-up letter with his wife's date of death, but the checks kept coming. Needing the money, Karl cashed them.
When SSA finally realized its mistake, it demanded Karl repay $5,900 plus interest. Karl's annual income is only $12,000, slightly above the poverty level. His only savings of $5,000 was spent on his wife's funeral. He is a veteran of the fierce Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, which left him deaf in one ear and nearly blind in one eye.
He lives alone in his small house, takes a weekly bus to visit his wife's grave, and spends his time carving wooden military figures. He donates these carvings to a local charity, which sells them to help feed the homeless.
SSA gave Karl six months to repay the debt in full, threatening to seize his home otherwise. Karl asked if he could pay $30 a month, all he could afford.
"That's insufficient," said William Shatner, an SSA agent. "We know he is a war veteran, but that doesn't entitle him to free money. He knew his wife was dead, yet he cashed her checks. That is fraud, pure and simple."