My father forged my signature and cashed my social security check

[Keni924]

I live in Florida, my mother died when I was 12 and i'm 17 now, my father is a terrible drug addict so my brother and I moved in with our grandfather. Our father had cashed our checks without telling us for nearly two years, so almost 30,000$. We found out this last year and had them sent to my grandfathers where we are living, the social security office made a mistake last week and sent it to my father's house. When I got there three days later having figured out what happened he had spent all 2000$ And he had forged my signature to cash it, is there anything I can do to prosecute him?

 

[Shadowbunny]

I live in Florida, my mother died when I was 12 and i'm 17 now, my father is a terrible drug addict so my brother and I moved in with our grandfather. Our father had cashed our checks without telling us for nearly two years, so almost 30,000$. We found out this last year and had them sent to my grandfathers where we are living, the social security office made a mistake last week and sent it to my father's house. When I got there three days later having figured out what happened he had spent all 2000$ And he had forged my signature to cash it, is there anything I can do to prosecute him?

You can 1) report it to the police, and 2) report it to the Social Security Administration. https://www.ssa.gov/agency/plain-language/Examples/Web%20Pages/1%20-%20Webpage%20-%20Reporting%20Fraud%20(OIG)%20-%20BEFORE.PDF

 

[justalayman]

You are a minor. I suspect your father was your representive payee. If you received paper checks
They were probably made out to him

Even now, how is it you have SS checks sent to you with you being a minor? Who is your representative payee?


and you get $2000/ month? That is unlikely given you started collecting about 5 years ago. The maximum benefit available to a retiree who starts benefits in 2012 (2017 minus the 5 years you have been collecting) is $2513 and to garner that amount the person would have had to pay in the maximum possible for 35 years. Unless your mother made a lot of money and you were born very late in her life it's unlikely she had enough earnings for a long enough period of time to earn the max amount. Then, given a surviving child is paid no more than 75% of a parent's base payment you could not posssibly be paid more than $1884 per month and could be less depending on how many beneficiaries there are collecting from your mothe's account.

 

[Keni924]

The reason I got 2000$ is because I hadn't cashed my checks for awhile when I moved in with my grandfather, It's backpay.

 

[justalayman]

The reason I got 2000$ is because I hadn't cashed my checks for awhile when I moved in with my grandfather, It's backpay.

So who is your representative payee?

 

[Keni924]

Representative payee

My grandfather

 

[justalayman]

My grandfather

So you're saying your grandfather hasn't cashed your checks because that is who they would be made out to.

And because of that your father forging your name is irrelevent