Article from Fox News by Fred Lucas.
After admitting to spending nearly a decade fraudulently cashing her dead mother’s Social Security checks, Pamela Thompson, 63, of Algiers, Louisiana, was sentenced in February to three years probation and restitution of $297,325 for theft of government services.
Death can be lucrative. Similar crimes may not be that difficult for fraudsters because of faulty government tracking of which beneficiaries are still alive. Audits have found federal agencies doling out millions in taxpayer dollars to dead people.
Referring to a case in his state, a lead co-sponsor of a bill to curb fraudulent payments, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the near $300,000, “never should have been sent in the first place.”
“It’s pretty simple: Don’t pay dead people,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Read the entire article at Fox News.
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This is a stupid article! People have known this was going on for years.
I have been harping about this for 30 years and the stupid IRS said it would cost to much to stop the mess. That is a stupid statement it increases every year! Get some competent people in there and do not let these thieves off! They should go to work on work details at $10 an hour and work 40 hours minimum a week. This has been going on forever in Illinois and not one administration has tried to stop it. Illegals should not get a cent of tax payers funds! If they cannot support themselves they should be sent home
The solution is simple. A death certificate is filed for every person who dies and all are retained in digital form. One more step in the program would automatically send it to the Social Security Administration. I collect a great deal of genealogical data on my family and have seen thousands of death certificates. Many include Social Security Numbers. A 1950 vintage punch card could do it.
And this is how elections are won.
The IRS says it would cost to much to stop this sort of scam. Well now, how much does this sort of scam cost, or would IRS rather not discuss that sort of question?