A married neighbor of mine recently started drawing SSI benefits. Her husband applied for SSA disability at the same time she applied for SSI but he was initially turned down. When he appealed the decision he asked what would happen to his wife's SSI benefits if he was approved. According to what he told me he was told that if he was approved for SSA disability and because of the amount he would receive that his wife's SSI benefits would either be sharply reduced and possibly ended. Upon hearing this he and his wife immediately filed for a divorce and she notified SSI that they no longer lived with each other.

My questions are these: 1). Was/is there fraud involved in their case since they never lived separately from each other and even now still live together as if they were still married and they divorced because of what SSA told him about reducing or cutting off her benefits if they were married when he started his SSA disability? (he was finally approved for SSA disability)

2). Was/is there fraud when she gave her sister's address as her own even though it was only given to appear as if she no longer lived with her now ex-husband?

Thanks.

It would have to be proven that that is the only reason they divorced. This is something that would be handled by the local prosecutor's office. You certainly can try to contact them.

According to SSA' web site:

"An individual indicates on their application that they are not married when in fact they are married or living as such..."

They were married and presented themselves as such when they both applied but divorced after he found out that she would lose part or all of her SSI when he found out that he was going to be approved in March 2008. In fact I believe they filed for divorce the very same month he was told that he was going to be approved (March 200 and their divorce was finalized in April 2008 and he received his back payment in May 2008.

They were married in 1977 and have never lived apart. Since they have always lived together before their divorce and never separated prior to and after their divorce if SSA wanted to pursue it it would seem that they could make a very good case that their divorce (and the fact that she put someone else's address down as her own when she never lived there) was done solely for the purpose for her to continue receiving SSI after her now ex-husband started receiving his SSA benefits.

I wonder how prevalent this practice is of people divorcing so they can receive two separate government benefits that they could not receive if they remained married even when they have no intentions of living apart from each other? I bet the numbers are high.

It may happen. I am not sure what your interest is in this. Your choices are to either contact the authorities or just let it go.

My interests are as follows:

1). They both have become obnoxious to the point that I have disassociated myself from them.
2). The reason for #1 is because they seem to relish in talking about how they are screwing the government.
3). I know of people that are very disabled yet they have not been able to get their Social Security Disability.
4). I hate to think that they are drawing monies based on lies whereas others who are really disabled can not get their disability.
5). My and your and other honest people's tax dollars are going to help send them checks in which I have real doubts about the disability of one of the two.
6). By their own admission they lied and obtained a divorce solely to fraudulently collect monies that they otherwise would not have been entitled to.

Lastly I think that with the way they act and their inability to keep their mouths shut makes it just a matter of time until someone does report them. My interest in this particular case is pointed out in my first post in this thread. For purely academic reasons I wondered about the legality of their actions and, if illegal, how often such behavior goes on.

You can contact the authorities then and let them deal with it. They will either prosecute the case or determine that there is not enough proof.