Jan Kardys from Brooklyn has been paying taxes for the last 10 years. He came to the United States and worked the number of years required to qualify for Social Security benefits. But now he cannot claim them. The reason is that he was an undocumented worker.

The decision was delivered to him by the Social Security Administration in Brooklyn. Michal Pankowski, a tax expert from Greenpoint, is outraged.

This is an act of appropriation

“This is a kind of theft. The money he paid does not belong to the government, which should be only a temporary keeper of these funds. Jan Kardys, like everybody else, contributed to his retirement fund. Now he finds out he cannot get anything at all,” said Pankowski. For many years he has advised his clients to pay taxes, including Social Security. This was his advice also to those who worked without working papers.

Why pay?

”The current decision discourages people from paying taxes. The sense of work in America is diminished,” said Pankowski. It is better to make a little more cash now than split it with the government and end up with no benefits later on, goes the logic.

Neither Poland nor the US

Up to now getting retirement money for illegal workers was possible when they went back to Poland. U.S. Consulates in Warsaw and Krakow helped dealing with federal benefits and they facilitated the whole procedure. “It worked like this: you showed up at your local Social Security Administration office with a valid ITIN number (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number), where you were informed that you could not claim your benefits within the United States, but they could be paid out in Poland,” explained Pankowski. “Now it looks like an undocumented worker will nor be able to collect their benefits anywhere.”

One quarter is enough

These limitations do affect people who worked with a legal Social Security number, only to people who applied for benefits after Jan. 1, 2004 and never had a legal work permit. Those who claimed their benefits before Dec. 31, 2003 will probably get them, even though they worked illegally, but they will still have to go back to Poland.

I will not let it go

Michal Pankowski announced he would not leave it like that. His office prepared a letter addressed to Senator Schumer asking for his intervention. The Polish American Congress also took up the issue. One thing is sure: the problem of retirement for undocumented workers will make a big splash.