In late 2012, the Jefferson City Social Security Administration (SSA) contacted federal authorities regarding a scheme that had been uncovered to defraud the SSA of disability benefits.
Social Security benefit fraud is relatively uncommon, according to SSA's Office of the Inspector General (SSA OIG).
"Last fiscal year, we received over 141,000 fraud allegations of all kinds - of which about half were related to some type of disability fraud," said Tracy Lynge, deputy assistant inspector general for external relations at SSA OIG.
In fiscal year 2013, SSA OIG closed nearly 8,000 criminal investigations and secured more than 1,300 criminal convictions due to fraud.
Lynge said the office receives fraud allegations from the SSA, the public and other law enforcement and government agencies.
The 2012 disability fraud case in Jefferson City involved Tina and Garry Parker of Osage Beach. They had reported theft of their disability checks which had been issued on Aug. 31, 2012. The SSA office had initially re-issued the "stolen" checks to them without a thorough investigation of their theft allegations.
When a pattern emerged, an audit was initiated that led agents to believe that beginning in May 2006, Tina was having Garry endorse and cash her checks, then reporting them missing so they could be re-issued and cashed again, and that Garry was similarly having Tina endorse and cash his checks, before reporting them missing and properly endorsing and cashing the checks that were re-issued.
In a meeting in Dec. 2012, the Parkers admitted to their scheme, telling agents they had been experiencing extremely hard times and needed extra money. They each admitted they knew what they were doing was wrong, but felt they had no other alternative.
Tina recently pleaded guilty to acting with her husband to defraud the SSA, received four years probation and must pay $9,127 in restitution.
Garry has pleaded guilty to charges against him and is awaiting sentencing.
Lynge said the OIG, SSA, state disability determination agencies, and state and local law enforcement agencies have several systems in place to catch Social Security fraud, but the most successful initiative is the Cooperative Disability Investigations (CDI).
CDI units investigate suspicious disability claims, identify individuals who promote or facilitate disability fraud, work to prevent fraud when someone first applies for benefits and provide investigative findings that contribute to accurate and timely disability determinations.
CDI has 25 units across 21 states and has contributed to $2.7 billion in projected savings to SSA's disability programs.
Lynge said the agencies plan to open seven additional CDI units by the end of Fiscal Year 2015.
Other fraud-detection systems include a Social Security Fraud Hotline at oig.ss.gov/report and a collaboration between SSA and OIG to increase their ability to match SSA records against publicly available data and data from other federal agencies.
While civil action was taken against the Parkers, causing Tina to pay restitution and leaving Garry's fate yet unknown, the couple may still be eligible to receive benefits.
Lynge said even beneficiaries who have previously committed fraud may receive benefits again because they are legitimately disabled according to SSA's rules.
"Though if the court has ordered restitution, any future payments (even retirement benefits if they don't apply again until retirement age) will be partially withheld to recoup the amount paid due to fraud," Lynge said.