Foreign-Born Parents Not Mooching Off the Social Security System

Aside from other hoops to leap through, dependent parents can receive benefits only after their child passes away.
Foreign-Born Parents Not Mooching Off the Social Security System
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Tom Margenau
Updated:
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Q: I am sick and tired of all these people who bring their parents over here from foreign countries and then immediately put them on their Social Security account. No wonder Social Security is going broke! I personally know two couples in my neighborhood who get Social Security. They brought their parents up from Mexico, and now they are mooching monthly checks off of the Social Security system and bankrupting it. You can’t tell me this isn’t an outrage!
A: It might be an outrage if it were true. But it’s not. Either you are lying about these two couples you “personally know,” or you’ve picked up on some xenophobic neighborhood gossip and fallen for another in the long line of urban myths about Social Security.
Tom Margenau
Tom Margenau
Author
Tom Margenau worked for 32 years in a variety of positions for the Social Security Administration before retiring in 2005. He has served as the director of SSA’s public information office, the chief editor of more than 100 SSA publications, a deputy press officer and spokesman, and a speechwriter for the commissioner of Social Security. For 12 years, he also wrote Social Security columns for local newspapers, and recently published the book “Social Security: Simple and Smart.” If you have a Social Security question, contact him at [email protected]
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