As we have noted, the federal Social Security Administration has not been hesitant to hand out money to old Nazis, or to the dead. But as Mark Fisher of the Washington Post confirms, Social Security bosses are now mounting a surge to grab money “from the children of people who were allegedly overpaid benefits decades ago.”

Fisher is aware that the Obama administration said in April that it would stop this practice. Indeed, after the Washington Post reported the story, acting Social Security boss Carolyn Colvin said the practice would stop immediately. That turned out to be false.

“Some people whose refunds were seized were reimbursed in recent months,” writes Fisher, but “some of those same taxpayers have since received new demands from Social Security, asserting that the debts remain and seeking repayment.” These include Mary Grice, 58, who “received a new bill from Social Security, seeking the same $2,997 that the agency had refunded to her four months earlier.” And in her case, Social Security wasn’t even sure which member of Grice’s family had been overpaid. She was 4 years old in 1960, when her father died and her mother began receiving survivor’s benefits.

Fisher charts the case of Daniel Asmus of California, whose father died when he was 9. He sent letters reminding Social Security of Colvin’s announced freeze. But then “the agency pushed ahead with its effort to collect a $2,094 debt that it says stems from overpayments of survivor’s benefits to Asmus’s long-deceased mother in the 1970s.” And Social Security is after Jessica Vela “for $16,888 that the government claims she owes for overpayments made to her mother in child support benefits when Vela was 1.”

Robert Vogel, an attorney for taxpayers whose refunds were seized, told the Post, “Deep down, they believe it’s the right thing to go after children.” Social Security is pressing the courts “to force a child to pay a debt incurred by the parents. It’s really quite disgusting.” That is putting it mildly.

This is government agency indulging in child abuse to cover its own mistakes. But remember, government cares for you, bureaucrats and politicians always tells the truth, and of course it’s all for the children. Happy holidays, everybody.