Mom steals $86K in benefits meant for young daughter in Massachusetts, feds say
A Massachusetts mom pocketed Social Security benefits meant for her young daughter over a six year period, federal prosecutors said.
Now, the 45-year-old woman is sentenced to 10 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and she is ordered to pay $86,994 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a May 12 news release. McClatchy News is not naming the woman to protect the identity of her child.
McClatchy News reached out to the woman’s attorney May 13 but did not receive an immediate response.
The woman, from Fall River, first applied for Social Security benefits on behalf of her daughter, who was 5-years-old at the time, in August 2014 using the father’s income, according to court documents.
In May 2016, the Massachusetts Department of Child and Families removed her daughter from her custody, but she kept collecting Social Security benefits on her behalf, prosecutors said.
The woman intentionally withheld information about her daughter’s living situation from the Social Security Administration, and when officials became suspicious and stopped the payments, she made “false sworn statements” to try to reactivate the payments, according to court documents.
In June 2022, she gave officials fraudulent forms showing her daughter still lived with her, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said she used most of the money to pay her own bills.
She pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government money in February, according to the indictment.
Fall River is about a 50-mile drive southwest from Boston.
This story was originally published May 13, 2025 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Mom steals $86K in benefits meant for young daughter in Massachusetts, feds say."
