Community Chat

[KathyPet]

This woman interviewed in this story on SS received her deceased mother's disability payments for over 30 years after her mother's death. She never questioned the continuation of the benefits because her mother told her she would be entitled to,them after her mother's death. She never questioned the continuation of the benefits and she never reported her mother's death to SS. She said she thought the funeral,director would take care of doing it. The SSA finally discovered that her mother had not used her Medicare benefits in 30 years and questioned it. Now the daughter was found guilty of a felony and is facing a year in jail. I have absolutely no sympathy for her. Why would you think you were entitled to receive someone else's disability payments and never check to be sure?

[tansy]

Did she seem to be mentally challenged?

[Lacey1]

Simple: She may have gotten very dependent on that money, and figured Mom had earned it-and she needed it more than the SS office did. Probably happens every day.

[KathyPet]

No she was perfectly well spoken. She is a mother, a grandmother and she and her husband both have or had good well paying jobs.

[tansy]

On 3/15/2015 KathyPet said: No she was perfectly well spoken. She is a mother, a grandmother and she and her husband both have or had good well paying jobs.

Thanks. I was trying to figure out why her mother supposedly told her she was entitled to the SS payments:/

[Marienkaefer2]

I don't agree with jail time. I think she should be required to pay back the money. If she's had well putaying jobs, she should be able to at least work out a payment arrangement.

[Gooday]

She got caught plain and simple. Doh!

[foundinlv]

Not only should she do time in jail but repay that money. Clearly, there is a failure in the ss system that can't catch these type of offenses. When my mother-in-law passed away I got on the phone with social security within days to report it....I was only in my 30's. Gee, how did I know to do that?

[KathyPet]

Yes but these were not strictly speaking SS payments although the SSA pays the benefits these were disability payments paid out because her mother was disabled so why you would you think,you (a grown adult) were entitled to get disability payments after the intended receipent died?

[RainCityGirl]

Who on earth handled the mother's estate? You are required to report the death to Social Security immediately. If it's at the end of the month, you can keep what your mother was paid for that month to handle the estate. If the death occurs in the middle or first of the month, SS will reclaim the amount left immediately. Usually, the funeral director will give you all the information about death certificates, etc. Many places require a death certificate before anything else happens. Life Insurance particularly needs a certificate, and you can't trust them to say they got it unless you send it signature required. Unless you are a joint tenant right to survivorship on an account or a designated power of attorney, you can't take any of those funds without going through proper channels. If there is real property, you have to probate the estate. Medicare requires a notice of death as well. If all these steps were taken, I find it hard to believe that SS did not contact the inheritor of the estate immediately. I also wonder with computers, why it took 30 years to notice no one was using medicare benefits. I too wonder if this person was mentally challenged, in which case, someone should have stepped in. And the last I checked, the law doesn't accept ignorance as an excuse. How could anyone grow up in this country and not know most of the important details regarding death. I suspect she thought she could get some easy money and not be caught....she was right, at least for 30 years.