BANK OF AMERICA DEMANDS RIGHT TO TAKE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN SOCIAL SECURITY PAYMENTS FROM RETIREES AND THE DISABLED

Bank of America may be the Grinch that stole Christmas this holiday season for millions of struggling disabled and retired Americans who are receiving Social Security benefits.

Bank of America is apparently demanding the right to keep for itself hundreds of millions of dollars it has garnished from Social Security payments that were and are supposed to be paid to more than one million disabled and retired Americans.

And most of those Social Security beneficiaries may never even have known that their government benefits were taken from them and handed over to Bank of America.

Imagine that you are retired or disabled and living precariously month to month on your Social Security payment. While at the grocery store you pay $5.60 for some tomato juice and a small salad for your meal that day. You don't realize that you have overdrawn your Bank of America checking account that day by that very small amount.

Not until Bank of America knocks you with a $35 overdraft fee and garnishees that amount from your Social Security payment that the government deposits directly into your account. All without direct notice to you.

That is exactly what happened to Paul Miller and more than a million other Bank of America customers. Bank of America would take "overdraft" fees of $35, $52 and more directly from Social Security payments that were supposed to go disability claimants and retirees.

Federal benefits such as Social Security payments are supposed to be exempt from garnishment according to federal law. But that is not apparently stopping Bank of America.

Paul Miller and and others sued Bank of America and in fact, won in a California Court in 2004. The Court found that even then, Bank of America had already wrongfully taken more than $296 million in payments from Social Security recipients.

But again, that is apparently not stopping Bank of America.

Bank of America appealed that ruling and argued that its practice of taking Social Security benefits directly from retired and disabled recipients without having to provide notice is justified, and a California Court of Appeals agreed...with Bank of America.

Paul Miller and others now with the help of AARP are appealing that ruling to the California supreme court.

Meanwhile the taking of Social Security payments from disabled and retired recipients without notice apparently continues to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of Bank of America.

If you are a Bank of America customer and are receiving Social Security disability or other benefits, watch your bank balance carefully. Even the smallest amount of overdraft by you in your checking account apparently can result in Bank of America garnishing your Social Security disability and other payments. Until and unless Paul Miller and others can convince the courts to stop Bank of America, there is apparently little more that you can do to protect yourself, other than possibly finding another bank in which to place your accounts.

(source: AARP 12/2007)