Government Bureaucrats Be Not Proud

With the misguided stroke of a few keys, the U.S. government killed off June Reynolds two months before her time.

The Hayden Lake woman, 78, lost her struggle with cancer last Dec 10. Not on Oct. 10 as some bureaucrat in a Coeur d’Alene office mistakenly typed on a form two or three days after June’s death.

Cathy Evans, June’s daughter, has no problem with that. “Mistakes happen all the time,” says the Spokane resident, who is one of my co-workers. “I know that.”

What followed, however, has Evans steaming. Wonder why so many people are fed up with the way their government works? Keep reading.

On Dec. 18 - only eight days after June’s death - faceless feds swooped into her bank account like vultures after road kill.

June dying in October meant that two months of Social Security payments had been wrongfully collected. So with no warning or a lick of further investigation, fed pirates used their faulty assumption to plunder June’s account of $1,578.

Again, mistakes happen. The only difference, notes Cathy, is “that I have to correct my mistakes.”

Getting the government to right an obvious wrong is about as easy as teaching a camel to fly.

Cathy was at her mom’s bedside when she died. This is an emotionally delicate time for her, a time when she should be getting over her loss.

Instead, she is trying to unravel a maze of red tape to get back her mom’s money.

Not that her quest hasn’t had its own rewards. Cathy has encountered some real sweethearts along the way.

Calling a 1-800 Social Security number, she says she was put on hold 20 minutes before being connected to a human being. The woman told Cathy she needed to call the Coeur d’Alene office.

She asked the woman if, failing to reach someone, she could call her back. This brought laughter from the government worker, who said sarcastically between guffaws, “Oh, you’ll never find me again.”

She finally reached a condescending Social Security supervisor, she says, who conceded a mistake had been made. Then why not, Cathy wondered, simply redeposit the money?

Can’t do that, he said, as if instructing a child. “She’s dead.”

“Well, I know that,” answered Cathy. “I was there.”

The supervisor explained that with June being dead, her bank account was considered closed.

Cathy tried to point out that her dead mother’s account was certainly open enough for the government to barge in and rifle it.

The account, which also bears Cathy’s name, remains open. Cathy is keeping it active for the time being to pay off some of her mom’s bills.

“I wonder how many families are going through the same thing we are right now because of a clerical error,” she says. “I’m shocked and very disappointed that the government of the people treats the people this way.”

Who would blame her?

After making a dozen calls all morning to a busy signal, I finally reached a Department of Health and Human Services worker in the Coeur d’Alene office. She said she’d pass along my request to speak with the person who made the original blunder.

The worker wasn’t surprised to hear what had happened. Nor was she surprised to learn of Cathy’s frustration. “Those can really be a nightmare to correct,” she says.

Another woman called me an hour or so later saying I needed to mail in a release of information form signed by Cathy before anyone would talk.

Don’t you just love the government?

Meanwhile, Cathy is waiting for a copy of her birth certificate. She was told she and her three sisters needed the documents in order to prove they are June’s heirs and thereby entitled to the money that was taken from them in the first place.

Once Cathy gets the birth certificates, she’ll have to send them to Social Security, which means more stalling.

I have no doubt that June’s money will eventually be returned. But I wonder: Will the feds be thoughtful enough to add any of the interest that would have accrued during the delay?

Maybe when camels fly.

, DataTimes