The thing is, I don’t think any Americans have a problem with people being on welfare if they truly need it. And some people really do need it.
I have a huge problem with people who use it as their life’s income because they don’t want to work and think it’s ok to keep having kids just so they can stay on welfare.
The system needs fixing.
Like this Pennsylvania woman who has been arrested for collecting more than $100,000 in welfare benefits for three children that don’t exist.
Sabrina Strothers, 23, of Pittsburgh, is charged with two counts each of forgery and making false statements in a welfare investigation and one count of theft by deception.
Detectives from the Allegheny County Court District Attorney’s Office said Strothers was pregnant with triplets in 2008, but they were never born.
The 23-year-old collected approximately $130,000 in welfare benefits for three children who don’t exist after she claimed to have given birth in 2008 to triplets, who she named Thomas, Tomalyia, and Tyreik Wilson, according to Daily Mail.
Strothers reported the birth of the three children to the country assistance office and continued to list them on applications for benefits for eight years. However, the children did not exist. Shockingly, Strothers got away with it for nearly a decade and was only busted when her own cousin reported her to Pittsburgh officials.
When investigators followed up on the cousin’s tip, they discovered that the Social Security numbers for Strothers’ children actually belonged to people born in 1887, 1945, and 1960.
When Strothers was initially contacted by the Office of the Inspector General, she claimed the triplets lived with their father in Atlanta, Georgia. She also claimed that she sent her benefits card to him so he could use the benefits to provide for their children. However, she was unable to provide officials with the father’s address or telephone number.
When the timelines she gave during an interview with investigators, regarding her alleged pregnancy and the triplets’ lives, started to contradict things she had previously told them, she eventually confessed to investigators that she falsified the information and admitted that the children did not exist. But, that’s not all Strothers lied about.
According to AWM:
The fraud was described in its entirety as $36,269 in food stamps, $90,000 in medical care and $2,000 from a fund called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Imagine how many needy, struggling families that tax-payer money could have gone to help over the years!
For some reason, her first appearance in court won’t happen until several months from now. Until then, her case will remain up in the air and her fate undecided.
“If found guilty of committing welfare fraud, a defendant must make full restitution of the overpaid benefits, can receive a sentence that can include community service, probation or incarceration, pay costs and fines to the court, and be disqualified for a period of time from public assistance benefits,” described a statement from the Inspector General’s office.
Watch the video report below for more details:
Sources: AWM, Daily Mail