Wife lies about Indiana husband’s death for years to collect Social Security, feds say
An Indiana woman collected more than $230,000 in Social Security benefits over 15 years, federal officials said.
The money, however, was not intended for the 70-year-old woman. It was for her husband, who was dead, prosecutors said.
Now, the Kokomo woman is ordered to pay back the $231,203.10 she illegally received from the Social Security Administration by neglecting to report her husband’s death in 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Indiana said in a Feb. 26 news release.
The woman pleaded guilty to making a false statement in May, according to court documents. Her attorney information was not listed.
In carrying out the illegal act, the woman requested to be added to her husband’s benefits as a “representative payee” four years before he died, prosecutors said. This practice is often done when the person receiving the benefits cannot manage them on their own.
This action was approved, according to officials, and the woman would annually re-certify the relationship to her husband through paperwork sent to the Social Security Administration, according to the news release.
When her husband died in 2006, however, she falsely reported that he was still alive in paperwork from 2007 to 2022, prosecutors said, which allowed her to collect his benefits.
She ultimately received the money “she was not entitled” to since her husband had died, according to federal officials.
“For over a decade, (the woman) brazenly stole not only from the United States government, but also indirectly from taxpayers who diligently pay into the Social Security retirement fund,” John E. Childress, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a news release.
Kokomo is about a 60-mile drive north from Indianapolis.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Wife lies about Indiana husband’s death for years to collect Social Security, feds say."
