And You're Calling Her Confused?

From The Daily Telegraph of Temple, TX:

Dear Annie: I came to the United States back in the late 1980s. My husband at the time suddenly abandoned me and my two children. We entered a legal separation agreement in 1990 and eventually divorced in the early 2000s. ...

The reason I am writing this letter is because my ex-husband has been collecting Social Security from the United States under my name for the past year. I understand that this is legal to do. However, my ex-husband does not live in the United States and he’s using a false address of residence. He has only come to the United States in the past two years to file for Social Security, update his driver’s license and renew his passport. ...

My goal is to make this matter known. I am not looking for him to repay me any child support. My question, though, is how can we give someone Social Security without looking more in depth to his background? How is he proving that he’s a resident of the United States, for example? If someone is collecting Social Security through an ex-spouse, then why aren’t we checking to see if they paid all their child support? He’s currently lying to the federal office and benefiting on my behalf. ...

Dear Used and Confused: You can report Social Security fraud through the Social Security Administration website (https://www.ssa.gov/) or by calling the SSA at 1-800-269-0271. It sounds as though your husband has disqualified himself from receiving benefits in many ways. Also note that anyone who owes $2,500 or more in child support is not eligible to receive a U.S. passport. Talk to a lawyer about procuring the back pay of child support as well as preventing your husband from fraudulently claiming your SS benefits.

     It's certainly appropriate to report Social Security fraud but there are a few problems with this answer. First, it's not fraud to receive U.S. Social Security benefits while living in another country. In fact, there's about half a million people living outside U.S. borders who receive U.S. Social Security benefits and, no, you don't have to be a U.S. citizen to do so. Second, the writer should have told this woman that child support can be withheld from Social Security benefits. Third, the ex-husband getting benefits on the account doesn't reduce the benefits going to this woman. Whatever he gets is on top of what she gets, not subtracted from it. If she's smart, she can use him getting benefits on her account to collect the child support she's owed but not unless she gets better advice than this.