Four years after her longtime partner died of kidney cancer, federal agents knocked on Gail Deckman’s door outside Chicago and told her she was in trouble: She had kept thousands of dollars in Social Security disability benefits that should have stopped when he died.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
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How a Social Security program piled huge fines on the poor and disabled
The remarkable penalties led to tumult inside the office of Inspector General Gail Ennis, where a whistleblower was targeted for retaliation, an administrative judge found
By Lisa Rein
Updated May 20, 2022 at 6:48 p.m. EDT|Published May 20, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. EDT