Welfare Fraud

[tabler43119]

What is the name of your state OHIO (only U.S. law)?

My father is 64 and is being charged with welfare fraud. It seems that in 2006 he had went into diabetic shock and had to be hospitialized well he did not have Part B medicare or something to that sort any ways that led me and my sister to think of ways to help him get the coverage he needed I remembered him telling me he had been in one of the wars Vietnam or Korea or something so I ended up helping him get hooked up with VA anyways The hospital social worker came in and informed my father he was eligible to have welfare pay his part B premiums he told them he did not want it that he was getting linked up to the VA Well after he got out of the hospital he went into the welfare department to see if he could get a medical card for his partner they are not married. Any ways they again told him he would be eligible for them to pay his premiums. He again told her no but she stated your eligible for it you might as well use it. My father proceeded to tell the case worker that he had applied for VA benefits and should be approved soon. The social worker then informed my father it would not matter and they would know when his VA benefits kicked in and everything would be taken care of and she would case note that he applied for the benefits. So time goes on my father wasapproved for the benefits when out of the blue welfare sends my father a letter informing him that they over paid him and he failed to report his VA benefits he did all recertifications over the phone and when they asked if anything had changed he informed them no because he assumed they had his VA benefits and now they are charging him with welfare fraud 2900.00 and threatening him to jail he is 64 congestive heartfailure 29 pills a day would they really send him to jail? Could he fight this?

[The Occultist]

In order to get proper legal advice, you really oughtta post your question in a forum other than one whose title includes "Not Legal Questions".

[commentator]

There is very likely an appeal process. He could talk to legal aid in his area if he wants to have an attorney and cannot afford one, but most appeals processes are set up so that you can do them yourself. Do you have power of attorney or any ability to speak for him? If not, then he will just have to tell the story of why ( which does not sound very reasonable) that he lied to the caseworker when he was asked if anything about his financial situation had changed. "I thought they already knew" is not a reason to fail to mention that he had started getting a VA pension since the last time they took his paperwork. He knew the drill, how they ask about every single source of income coming in each and every time. They did, of course, find out about it, but why would he not have told them? That's what they'll ask if he appeals.

They will try very hard to collect this money. He will not be able to get any more benefits until it is dealt with. He can also appeal his ability to pay it back, which will be based on his income (again!) I'd doubt if jail will be the first option, since though it is called fraud, this is considered an overpayment, more of a debt than a crime. But he did get this assistance even after he'd begun the VA pension, and he does owe the money back.

[Hot Topic]

The forum will work much better if people stop answering posters who ignore the advisory that this forum isn't for legal questions. As long as that's done, the forum can't be maintained for its true purpose.

[Tallrat]

Don't they have mods here to either move it to appropriate area or delete it for being in wrong forum? Bug reports forum should probably be a staff view only forum any how. With VBulletin you can set this forum to be mod reviewed before the post is allowed