Long story made short, leaving out details which could identify them: I found out that a friend of mine, who was divorced about 20 years ago, discovered that her ex-husband was committing disability fraud, and here’s how: He was, and still is, on disability for legitimate reasons, and because they had joint legal custody, he was also getting the family allowance on top of his payment, even though this should have gone to her because she had primary physical custody. Shouldn’t he have been arrested and prosecuted for this, and any money he gets attached and sent to her?
She took their divorce papers to the local Social Security office and got things changed, and that was needed because she was really struggling at the time in her own right.
She is a social worker herself, and didn’t know that there was a minor-child allowance on top of this.
Dopers?
ETA: He went on disability several years after the divorce, and she discovered the fraud a few years after that.
My guess is that it wouldn’t technically be fraud - if it was, SS would have prosecuted him. Or maybe it was fraud and they just didn’t bother because it didn’t meet their threshold to prosecute. But I can’t see how that wouldn’t have gotten your friend the money - for that, she would have had to go back to the court that issued the custody/support order in the divorce. And from what I understand, whether SSDI benefits for children affects the child support amount depends on the jurisdiction - in DC the benefits are used to reduce the amount of the support order
For example, if the amount of benefits is $300, and the obligation calculated using the Guidelines is $500, then the order would be set at $200. *
while in NYS it appears they will not affect the support order.
although a dependent child’s Social Security benefits are derived from the disabled parent’s past employment, they are designed to supplement existing resources, and are not intended to displace the obligation of the parent to support his or her children.
which mean the custodial parent is only getting $500/mo either way - if the non-custodial parent pays $500 and keeps the $300 in benefits , the custodial parent isn’t out any money.
It was fraud because it was going to the wrong person. Of course, I only had her side of the story, but if the kids were living with her, she should have gotten that money, and in fact did after she brought this to their attention.
