Seizing tax refunds

According this article   http://kuow.org/post/irs-chasing-children-dead-parents-debts  the IRS is confiscating the tax refunds of individuals whose PARENTS were overpaid by a government agency and in particular the Social Security Administration.

We are not talking about a final SS payment following the death of a parent (see the article), but potentially overpayments to the deceased parents going back man y years.   

I am not comfortable with this.  While the overpayments may have resulted in an unjust enrichment to the parent(s), and potentially their estate, at an expense to the taxpayers this gets much to close to “the sins of the father”.