Mentally Impaired Wisconsin Man Gambles Away All His Federal Aid

JANESVILLE, Wis. â€”  Joe Murphy fought red tape for two years to get more than $40,000 in federal disability benefits owed him for being mildly mentally retarded. He needed only a few weeks to blow it all gambling.

“I was going to the moon,� he recalls. “Gambling, gambling, gambling, all the way from video poker to the blackjack table.�

The Social Security Administration hadn’t intended to give the money directly to Murphy, a manic depressive with an IQ of about 70 who admits to a gambling problem.

It was supposed to go to a “representative payee,� a relative, friend or other party who helps a beneficiary manage funds.

One in 10 people getting Social Security have payees, mostly minor children. One in four people on Supplementary Social Security, such as the disabled or those 65 or older, have payees. The two groups total more than 6 million people.

Now Murphy’s case has prompted regional officials to reevaluate their use of the payee system.

Murphy learned after his father died in 1992 that he was entitled to disabled adult child benefits dating back to 1984, when he was 18. By the time Social Security agreed to award the benefits, he was due $40,945.

It was an enormous amount of money for a man who’d never held a job for more than a few weeks, who’d earned just $6,210 from 1984 to 1992 working factory or kitchen jobs. The manic depression took its toll, and he says he was suicidal for years. At the same time, he was raising three children with his live-in girlfriend.

Social Security recommended the benefits go to a payee, according to a July 22, 1996, memo filed at the agency’s Chicago regional center. The memo cited a report from Murphy’s therapist, passed along by his attorney, saying Murphy acknowledged a gambling problem and needed help with financial matters.

Two days later, Social Security District Manager John H. Burr sent Murphy a letter telling him to “bring someone with you who can serve as your payee for benefits, as the evidence in file strongly suggests that you need help managing your benefits.�

But Murphy showed up at the Janesville office alone, demanding his money.

“I said, ‘Just gimme the money, gimme the money, gimme the money,’ � Murphy said.

So the local office agreed to send him the money directly.

Janesville officials refused to comment on the meeting, but John Trollinger, press officer at SSA’s Baltimore headquarters, said he was informed that Murphy was “incensed� at the Janesville office.

“He was outraged that we would even consider paying benefits to anyone other than him. He said he could handle his own income. He said he had been receiving benefits for his children for many years and had no problem,� Trollinger said.

Murphy’s demeanor can obscure his limitations. With intense aqua eyes, neatly combed brown hair, clean, pressed clothing and a persuasive vocabulary, psychiatric reports say he “presents well� but his ability to comprehend is well below average.

Soon the money was flowing through Murphy’s hands and into the Ho-Chunk Nation’s casino at Baraboo.

“I was just like a roller coaster without brakes. I would do anything I could just to feel good for an hour,� Murphy said.

He said he would tell his girlfriend that he was going to the store for an hour, then vanish for days on a gambling spree. She finally kicked him out, and they remain apart.

“He blew it. A week or two later he was broke,� said Murphy’s sister, Janet Gelacio of Janesville, who has since been named Murphy’s payee. “Social Security let him have it and they shouldn’t have. It was like nothing for him to get it. He asked for it.�

Murphy found himself penniless and living month-to-month in a boarding house. He sold all his furniture and couldn’t fix his broken-down car. He says he had intended all that money to go toward buying a house and setting up savings accounts for his children, ages 6, 5 and 2.

“What they did was give me a loaded gun and said ‘shoot [yourself],’ � Murphy said.

After his experience, the Chicago office, which oversees Janesville, reviewed its interviewing procedures, focusing on how to determine whether someone with mental disabilities is capable of handling his or her own benefits.

“It’s very unusual for Social Security to pay benefits to someone when it’s clear they have a problem with money,� Trollinger said. “It clearly would not be appropriate for the agency to pay large retroactive benefits to someone where that history was known.

“At the time the local office in Janesville talked to him, there was no record of his being incapable from a medical source. He presented a convincing argument that he was quite capable of managing his own affairs,� Trollinger said.

The therapist’s report wasn’t enough to certify Murphy incapable, he said. And Murphy had been receiving monthly disability checks on his own behalf and for two of his three children, adding to the evidence that he could handle the money.

Murphy’s manic depression, also called bipolar disorder, also played a part.

“Certainly people who have this illness are notorious for being spendthrifts, using poor judgment, often times financial,� said Dr. James Hurth, psychiatrist at Comprehensive Counseling Services in Milwaukee.

Murphy blames the government for giving him the money he demanded when they knew he couldn’t handle it.

“If you’re mentally or physically disabled, the government needs to protect these people in the most simple way,� he said. “If someone comes into the Social Security office, that’s not good enough.�