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The grandmother was born in 1906. Granddaughter says Grandma died in 2004 (aged 98). Police found the body in 2019. Story doesn't say how police were alerted to look for the body, or how long granddaughter kept cashing her checks, but if one assumes that she did so until caught, that means she was cashing the checks until Grandma was supposedly 115 years old!
First of all, it would be interesting to know if Grandma really did live until 2004. Odds are against it. Second of all, why wasn't this discovered until 2019? Doesn't social security have some kind of alert to draw attention to accounts of people who are that old, whose checks are still being cashed, to root out this type of fraud?
The house in which the freezer with the body was located had been foreclosed upon, and someone looking to buy the foreclosed house found the body in February 2019 and called the police. It took 15 months until the police issued a warrant for the granddaughter's arrest.
This article, too, doesn't say how long social security kept paying out on the grandmother. She would have been 113 years old in 2019. Apparently, this type of fraud is fairly common. And if social security is without investigation automatically paying benefits on someone who would have been just about the oldest woman living in the USA, clearly their fraud investigation unit needs some attention.
There are some solutions but it would take additional fed dollars to SS.
Whoever issues a death certificate for anyone over 60 should also send a copy to SS administration.
A re-validation period with every so many years you need to show up in person similar to driver license renewals.
I'm curious - if they'd moved her, and simply never reported her dead, I wonder how long SS would have continued just issuing checks? There are reports of this type of fraud having gone on for over 40 years!
A re-validation period with every so many years you need to show up in person similar to driver license renewals.
This part sounds like a very bad idea to me. A lot of the elderly either can't get out or get out only with extreme difficulty. The burden should not be on them, but on the government.
This part sounds like a very bad idea to me. A lot of the elderly either can't get out or get out only with extreme difficulty. The burden should not be on them, but on the government.
I'm curious - if they'd moved her, and simply never reported her dead, I wonder how long SS would have continued just issuing checks? There are reports of this type of fraud having gone on for over 40 years!
I'd think SS would cross reference medicare bills to see if the person is getting medical treatment. If someone that age hasn't been to a Dr in 15-20 years then something is definitely up. No meds/prescriptions filled?
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