Another Elderly Woman Investigated for Stealing Social Security Benefits

After the news broke about the 82-year-old woman who was charged for stealing social security benefits last September, another elderly woman is being investigation for the same illegal act.

As reported, a 72-year-old woman from Gretna, Louisiana was sentenced to probation for stealing more than $135,000.00 in Social Security benefits after her mother died.

Based on the initial investigation, the woman, identified as Shirley A. Bunda, and late her mother used to share a checking account during the latter’s lifetime. However, when her mother died on February 15, 1998, Bunda failed to inform the Social Security Administration (SSA) about it.

Consequently, Bunda continued to receive her late mother’s social security benefits payment since the agency was clueless that the real beneficiary had passed away. 

Bunda’s illegal act was only discovered on August 3, 2011. The amount she collected from her mother’s benefits reportedly amounted to over $135,000.00, which she has to repay aside from the restitution in the amount of $133,297.00.

Incidentally, Bunda has already repaid $40,000.00 dollars. Nevertheless, she was still sentenced to three years probation by U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan last Wednesday.

Apparently, the act was initially unintentional, but it eventually became inexcusable on the part of Bunda since she obviously enjoyed receiving her undue benefits and didn’t even bother to report her mother’s death.

Meanwhile, the SSA is encouraging everyone to report the death of any social security recipients. In fact, the agency readily provided its contact details on its official website in case of a recipient’s death so that it could stop sending payments to the same. Also, a Los Angeles disability lawyer here reminded everyone that such illegal acts cannot be concealed forever; therefore, it would be best if people would simply avoid doing it so.

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3.6 Million Social Security Numbers Exposed after Hacker Attack

Last October 10, the entire nation was disturbed following news reports about a massive hacker attack broke.

According to news reports, the U.S. Secret Service learned that South Carolina’s (SC) Department of Revenue (DOR) system was hacked. After a series of investigation conducted by Mandiant, a private electronic security firm hired by the agency in light of the recent hacker attack, it was found out that the attack was said to have exposed some 387,000 credit and debit card numbers and 3.6 million social security numbers.

The stolen data included some information that people share with their tax returns like names, addresses, and taxpayer identification number. Unfortunately, most of those data had not been encrypted, which means that the hacker could readily view them without the need of any accessing code.

Moreover, the attack possibly affects anyone who has filed a tax return in South Carolina from 1998 up until the days prior to the discovery of the said security breach.

Apparently, the attack had occurred as early as August this year, but was only discovered last October 10. Moreover, after it was discovered, it took some 10 days more to close the hacker’s access and another six days to inform the public.

The State Law Enforcement Division Chief, Mark Keel said that the IP address used by the hacker appears to be foreign in nature.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are not yet properly notified of the issue since agents need some more time to determine exactly how much data have been compromised and who precisely are currently at risk of having their identities stolen.

Also, it is not yet known how the security breach has affected taxpayers and how the hacker might have used the data, whether it is for identity fraud or simply for exposure.

Meanwhile, the state’s Revenue Department has provided a toll-free phone line and a website for taxpayers who might have been affected by the hacking attack. In fact, the system was said to be overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of phone calls, according to the agency’s spokesperson, Samantha Cheek.

Incidentally, this is not an issue that has something to do with South Carolina alone. This is definitely an issue that the other 49 states will have to face since it could likewise happen to any other states in the U.S.

Apparently, this will now serve as challenge to every state’s cyber security defense, according to a Los Angeles disability lawyer.

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Chicago Cop’s Disability Payment Suspended

A Chicago police officer’s disability payment was suspended last Thursday by the Chicago Police Pension Board after the latter found out that the cop has been collecting disability payments while looking fit enough in his second job.

In a recent investigation conducted by the Sun-Times, several police and firefighter officers were found to be egregiously collecting disability payment while having their second job and one of the most distinguished frauds was Charles T. Siedlecki.

Apparently, Siedlecki started collecting disability payments a couple of decades ago after he went on disability due to an injury, which allegedly made it impossible for him to safely hand a gun. However, during his recent “duty-disability status review,” he was cited in several photos holding a rifle while posing with an animal he killed in African Safaris. Also, the investigation revealed that Siedlecki has used his disability payments to earn a law degree and run his family’s funeral business.

Meanwhile, the eight members of the said board was temporarily kept from permanently revoking Siedlecki’s disability payments after failing to properly notify the cop regarding his duty-disability status review.

According to reports, the board erroneously sent the letter of notification to Siedlecki’s father, Charles C. Siedlecki, who was a retired police.

Consequently, the Fraternal Order of Police President, Micheal Shields, suggested that Siedlecki should have at least one day to defend himself.

However, while Siedlecki’s case was temporarily hindered, the board continuously reviews the medical records of the other police and firefighters named in the Sun-times reports.

On the other hand, the Fraternal Order Police said that the Police Department doesn’t want such officers back in duty, although there are lots of limited-duty desk jobs available for those cops to handle.

If a board decided to permanently revoke Siedlecki’s disability benefit payments, it can also try to recover the money that was previously paid to the cop, briefly explained by a Los Angeles disability lawyer. According to the Sun-Times report, Siedlecki has collected a total of more than $175,000.00.

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Disability Benefit Claims Still Growing in Veterans

Despite the efforts exerted by President Barack Obama in adding resources in his administration to help veterans in getting disability benefits and mental health treatment, all his efforts apparently aren’t enough.

On Monday, President Obama talked about his assertions regarding the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department’s efforts and how people compare with the facts are quoted below:

President Obama: “We’ve hired thousands of claim processors. We’re investing in paperless systems. To their credit, the dedicated folks at the VA are now completing 1 million claims a year, but there's been a tidal wave of new claims.”

The Facts: Veterans can potentially become illegible for help with conditions or illnesses caused or made worse by their military service. However, although the government has long been struggling to keep up with the barrage of claims, backlogs have grown worse due to soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan returning home.

In May 2009, approximately 135 claims for disability benefits have been pending for more than 125 days. Such figure represents about a third of all pending claims. At present, that figure has more than quadrupled to 550,000 claims, which account for two-thirds of all pending claims.

In the last couple or years, although the department accomplished a million of claims each year, it received about 1.3 million new claims.

According to the department’s independent inspector general, the VA aggravated the situation by not assigning enough staff to process appeals and to follow its own processing guidelines in older claims.

In fact, when investigators reviewed the claims processed in three offices in California, they found out that division managers failed to conduct monthly reviews of those pending claims for more than a year –a clear violation of policy that caused unnecessary delays.

Apparently, despite the additional resources allotted to speed up the processing of claims, the VA office is still unable to cut its backlog. Therefore, it created disputes in previous congressional hearings.

President Obama: “We’ve also focused on the urgent needs of our veterans with PTSD. We've poured tremendous resources into this fight.”

The facts: Although the president correctly noted that the administration has increased its investment helping veterans deal with mental wounds of war, investigators found out that VA regularly did not follow its own guidelines in treating patients who are seeking mental health treatment.

Under the department’s policy, full evaluation of patients seeking mental health treatment should last for only until 14 days. However, based on the investigation conducted by the independent investigators, about half of the veterans seeking mental health care waited for about 50 days before receiving a full evaluation. 

In a recent article, a Los Angeles disability lawyer talked about the increasing number of veterans seeking permanent disability benefits. And now, issues regarding the processing of such claims are creating disputes among the lawmakers and the current administration. In fact, even President Obama’s Republican rival, Mitt Romney, is set to discuss the same issue in his next speech. 

Hopefully, after all the arguments and disputes regarding this issue have subsided, there would be a better future for all the veterans seeking disability benefit claims.

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Nearly Half of All New U.S. Veterans Seek Permanent Disability

On the recent news regarding the US soldiers who were sent overseas for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, more US soldiers than ever are surviving oversea deployments. Supposedly, that is good news, but when it comes to the country’s expenditures in the long run, it brings no luck to the United States.

The injuries sustained by the US soldiers deployed to the said wars definitely mean 45 percent of the new vets seeking permanent disability benefits. Obviously, it is almost half the number of current recipients. As time goes by, the compensation may sum up to $1 trillion worth of American taxpayers’ money. 

The wars in Iran and Afghanistan have actually generated some 1.6. million new veterans, with some 72,000 of which are now seeking job-related compensation. Unfortunately, each of the new claimants demands an average of less than ten illnesses.

In contrast, only 21 percent of Gulf war veterans who were deployed to battle fields in the early 1990’s claimed permanent disability, while the average of Vietnam veterans receive compensation for lesser than four illness.  

The two major factors seen by federal authorities to have caused the significant increase in the number of new permanent disability claimants are as follows:

•    Higher survival rate due to modernly armored body
•    Improved battlefield care protection from wounds

Apparently, the said increase in figures shows that veterans return with unprecedented injuries. Some veterans come home with missing limbs, while others with traumatic brain injuries that are commonly sustained from a bomb blast.

Although everybody is aware that the federal government’s trust fund for disability benefits is draining, such survivors of war cannot be denied their permanent disability benefits due them. It is because they have contributed their entire life in serving the nation and saving other people’s life. Therefore, it’s now the duty of the federal government to pay back all the hard efforts exerted by those veterans.

In addition, veterans should never have to worry about such issue since the intensive expertise and experience that a Los Angeles disability lawyer has would provide veterans with the best legal aid that they deserve.

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