Noteboom The Law Firm

Avoid Fraud by Choosing the Right Representative Payee

The risk of a representative payee mishandling your money from either Supplemental Security Income or disability payments is unfortunately something you have to look out for. However, not everyone has the chance to find out about it, because sometimes it happens after the recipient is deceased.

One of the most recent and appalling cases involves a 69-year-old Ohio woman who has illegally received both disability and retirement benefits for about 30 years. She was in charge of handling the affairs of her ex-husband's grandmother, who died in 1977.

The disability and retirement benefits she accepted over the years amounts to approximately $350,000. Additionally, she received her own disability payments, which added up to nearly $75,000. She simply never reported the relative's death to the Social Security Administration, and even went so far as to hire people to pose as the intended recipient when anyone from the SSA showed up.

Unfortunately, entitlement fraud is not exactly uncommon, but it typically does not go on this long, according to Cleveland.com. The good news is that she was caught and will likely get many years in prison, though the fact that she is battling breast cancer could shorten her sentence.

The woman's fraudulent scheme was discovered when a government agency received some unopened mail back from what they thought was her address. Upon trying to find her updated address online, officials saw that the intended recipient of the money had died several years earlier.

Many wonder why it took the SSA so long to catch the woman, especially since the disability recipient they thought they were mailing benefits to would have been over 100 by now. However, most SSA offices are severely understaffed, causing applicants to wait for months to hear back about their file, and allowing fraudulent cases like this one to go on for years. Therefore, you should be selective when appointing someone as your representative payee.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida disability lawyers, LaVan & Neidenberg, represent over 5000 disability claimants. Our disability attorneys have experience with cross examining agency-appointed medical and vocational experts and take time when speaking with you about your disability claim. Call us today at 1-888-234-5758 for a FREE legal consultation. There is NO OBLIGATION to hire our firm and there are NO FEES unless one of our trained disability lawyers wins your case.