Unexpected Money

Those of you who regularly read this blog may recall our experience with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in which it took 2 years to receive a 2020 tax refund. That was due to an IRS snafu and in 2022, we received a refund plus accumulated interest.

(SNAFU is a popular example of military acronym slang that has become widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression: situation normal all f#$!!ed up.)

 

Now, we have another U.S. institution which has made a mistake—this time it's either the Social Security Administration (SSA) or the financial institution into which our funds are direct deposited twice monthly.

Most folks (OK everyone) like to get 💰but when it's unexpected, it becomes suspicious. And, we're not exactly sure where these $$$ came from as this deposit was earlier than expected.

Let me explain, further.

Here's, what was in an email received at the start of last week (numerical sequences have been changed). We recognized that the message came from the financial institution and wasn't a fake email.

Great news! We were able to post your deposit early.

You may have noticed that your scheduled deposit from SSA TREAS 000 XXSOC SEC to your checking account ending in XXXX posted earlier than usual. You can access your money now.

Normally, we get two emails this the financial institution twice monthly when our SSA monies are deposited. We read and delete the emails after verifying that the amount listed is correct, which it always has been . . .

That was until this email as the💲amount listed was less than the usual SSA 💵 monies by at least half. The timing was early as my usual monthly SSA funds are not received until mid-month. This email came at the start of the month🤔

What to do?

First call was to the financial institution. After a series of answering questions to ascertain my status as the valid account holder, I was told that SSA deposits the funds and to contact that entity.

Luckily, there is a local SSA office in Nashua, NH, so a second call was made.

Then came a wait — 45 minutes total. Yes, a long one, but the call was never dropped and, after many recordings that others were being served and to continue holding to keep my place, at last the voice of an SSA agent came on the line.

Eureka (sort of)!

Once again, there was a series of questions to determine my status as the valid SSA recipient. After, passing all the interrogatories, I could then explain the situation and ask the question: Whats going on here ?

Once again, came another hold (brief one this time) as the SSA agent said he would check with the Treasury Dept. (honest, that's exactly what he said).

What happened next ?

The agent said his check showed that the regular  SSA payment had not been released early and was still scheduled (as usual) for mid-month.

Why did the bank send that email?

The agent had no answer and recommended to wait until the normal scheduled payment date to see what happens.

OK and that that's what I planned to do, until the next day another email was received and stated:

Great news! We were able to post your deposit early.

You may have noticed that your scheduled deposit from SSA TREAS 000 XXSOC SEC to your checking account ending in XXXX posted earlier than usual. You can access your money now.

No, it was not the same email as this one had a different $$$ amount listed, less than in the previous email. Stranger yet, when adding both amounts from the two emails—the combined total was more than my regular amount 🤔

Does any of this make any sense & What will we do?

Absolutely not and we suspect that somewhere, there's been another snafu.

Exactly what the SSA agent recommended—waiting to see what happens later this month (maybe next month too).

To be continued — when there's more to post . . .

Anything like this ever happened to anyone else—If so, was it resolved?