Mom charged with welfare fraud

Federal prosecutors have charged a Philadelphia mom with collecting welfare benefits for more than three years after he toddler died.

Nakia Calicat, 38, signed up for Social Security disability benefits on behalf of her medically frail daughter after she was born in 2007. The girl died at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2010. The Social Security Administration did not learn of her death until 2013 whereupon they cut the benefits that August.

Calicat told the Social Security Administration that her daughter was alive in October 2013 in an attempt to keep her benefits from being cut off. In 2014, while being interviewed by investigators from the Social Security Administration, she again claimed the girl was alive, court documents say.

She continued collecting the payments, between $606 and $710 per month. According to court documents, Calicat collected more than $26,000 in benefits after the girl died.