I WOULD BE VERY SUSPICIOUS THAT THE PEOPLE AT YOUR APS MIGHT BE DOING SOMETHING SIMILAR TO WHAT YOUR NIECE DID!!!
I don’t mean to be cynical, but that Adult Protective Services (APS) thing sure sounds fishy to me! Are you absolutely sure your elderly relative is actually eventually receiving her WHOLE SS check, either deposited into her account(s) or in cash? What about the interest on that money? Is APS (or one of their workers) somehow getting it, or is your relative?
What your elderly relative’s niece did was a CRIME. Has no-one reported THAT to local law enforcement? If not, WHY NOT? & DO IT NOW!
I am not an attorney, but I am an RN & worked for over a decade with another RN who is also a JD. We worked with legal matters every day in a very large publicly funded healthcare organization in AZ. According to what she taught me during that time, it is my understanding that no person can be proclaimed/declared incompetent except by a court of law, because it obviously involves taking away some very important personal rights. I would think that goes for APS too. I doubt a judge would disagree with you about your relative’s capabilities. Advanced age and hearing loss are NOT enough. Neither is being the victim of identity theft because you trusted your own niece to help you. Here is a legal definition of ‘incompetent’:
“adj. 1) referring to a person who is not able to manage his/her affairs due to mental deficiency (low I.Q., deterioration, illness or psychosis) or sometimes physical disability. Being incompetent can be the basis for appointment of a guardian or conservator (after a hearing in which the party who may be found to be incompetent has been interviewed by a court investigator and is present and/or represented by an attorney) to handle his/her person and/or affairs (often called ‘estate’)”. (from
http://dictionary.law.com/default2.asp?selected=925&bold=||||) “The word incompetent is also used to describe persons who lack mental capacity to make contracts, handle their financial and other personal matters such as consenting to medical treatment, etc. and need a legal guardian to handle their affairs.” (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competence_%28law%29).
So, if your relative is supposedly incompetent to handle her own affairs, who is your relative’s LEGAL GUARDIAN?
Someone, either your elderly relative herself, or someone to whom she had given power of attorney, had to have signed over your elderly relative’s Social Security to APS & ALLOWED them to become her SS payee. If those things did not happen, I think you MAY need to file a police report against APS, and maybe also get an attorney. Have you contacted Social Security? If not, you should be able to find out HOW APS got to be your relative’s SS payee. (You will need her SS# & legal authority to access her information. If you don’t have that, does someone else in your family? Also you might be able to get a lawyer for free or cheap (as attorneys go) through your state’s Legal Services (“Legal Aid”). This is the URL for the official national organization, “LSC”, which manages Legal Aid:
http://www.lsc.gov/.
“The Congress of the United States entrusts the Legal Services Corporation with a dual mission: to promote equal access to justice and to provide high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans.” (
http://www.lsc.gov/about/lsc.php)
You can search for legal assistance in your state here:
http://www.rin.lsc.gov/rinboard/rguide/pdir1.htm As for the harassment you’re getting & what to do about it, there is a good article with links to other good information on this subject right here on this website at
http://800notes.com/articles/Article.aspx/KBN5c2IZiAC_wQjKBNRWFA.
Hope this helps. Send me an email if you'd like & let me know how things are going: Puppy.Luv_66@yahoo.com. For you low-life spammers, I hardly ever use this email account & all spam is reported to the feds.
Good luck!
