Can illegal immigrants receive social security benefits?

Correction: SSN should be changed TIN.

 

ITIN. Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. I vaguely remember my wife getting one for some purpose (may even be linked to enrollment at Excelsior College). She later got EAD (Employment Authorisation Document) tied to my status, valid Social Security Number, and worked full time while I finished my studies. When my status expired, we both left the country for Canada - but still have our SSNs.

To be clear: getting ITIN does NOT qualify one to get Social Security benefits. I believe overstays with valid SSN can't get social security and full Medicare either - unless they cease to be undocumented in some way. Marriage, for example (if last border crossing was not illegal).

 

In the USA and in Canada, one can even pay taxes on the proceeding of crime if one wishes to do so. My guess is that organized crime corporate entities such as hells angel do pay taxes

 

Required to, actually, by law. Most don't because crime is not something the government would be aware of (otherwise they'd be in jail); also because why would they break one law and then pay money to follow this one?

 

I don't know how SSA works these days but they used to analyze the "hacked" account to tease out the contributions made by someone other than the worker. They then created a dummy account for the illegal worker and, if the worker otherwise qualified, he would receive benefits. To do otherwise would work a forfeiture of both the worker's and employer's contributions, something that generally can't be done without a court order.

 

Hmm, that's interesting.