A friend of mine has been married for 15 years, receiving SSDI for more than 20 years due to a serious long term incurable illness (approx.$1,400 mo.) She also receives a mo. check (approx. $800) for a child under the age of 16.
She has been battling the last year with an abusive narrsastic husband who has had her removed from her home by fling a bogus PFA order. He has stayed in marital home. Has been having an affair with someone for more than 7 years, has been stashing money somewhere during that time, no record of money anywhere, supposedly no record of a 401K anywhere. His salary was approx. $150,000 a year and he traveled about 50% of the time.
He has deliberately been fired to make sure he would be available to provide childcare for their child, and not have to pay child support, alimony etc. to spouse.
He is now collecting unemployment for the 2nd time in less than a 12 mo. period ( first time fall 2016, now again fall 2017) Engaged a brother and brother's friend into fraudelent acts to try and buy their house out from underneath her not once but twice. Tried to convince her to file for bankruptcy so a lein will be removed from their property & have her sign all rights of joint deed over to him so he could be sole owner.
When she refused to buckle and cooperate with his antics, he now is going after half of the $800 child benefits. They share 50/50 custody. He is ruthless. She has barely recieved a $1000 total during the year they have been separated. Now he has stopped making the mortgage payments on the marital home he is living in, trying to have her pay him. He is an able individual without any disabilities.
Is there abosolutely anyway to keep him from obtaining this money??? My friend needs this money to supply her daughter with food, housing, clothing etc.
Please help guide her. He is trying to make it it so that she can no longer live on her own and in our community. Hoping she would have to move out of town with her family, that way he would obtain full custody were child attends school, keep marital home and have her receive $0.
They do both have legal representation. SOS!!!!! I don't know how much longer she can hang on.
Hi,
That sounds like a terrible situation. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't have any solutions for your friend but I can explain how Social Security determines who should receive benefits on behalf of a minor child. Topping the preference list is a parent with custody of the child (https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/02005021050. In cases of split or joint custody, Social Security must make a judgment as to which parent is in a better position to properly use the benefits on the child's behalf. And in some cases, the payee for the child can switch back and forth between the parents depending on who has custody of the child at any given time.
Remember that child benefits belong to the child, not the parent or other person who receives the benefits on the child's behalf. So, whoever receives the benefits are expected to properly use the funds for the child's care and maintenance. And, they must provide an accounting to Social Security outlining how the funds were used. It sounds like the best thing that your friend could do would be to contact Social Security and explain why she believes that she is in the best position to properly handle her child's benefits on the child's behalf.
The other possibility is that your friend's husband is filing for spousal benefits on her record, which could result in their child's benefit rate being reduced by half due to the family maximum. If that's what you are referring to, there's probably not much that you friend could do to stop him. Her husband would need to have the child in his care (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0301310001) in order to qualify for benefits, though, so if that's not the case then your friend could report the facts of the situation to Social Security.
Best, Jerry
