Missouri sends nearly $5,000 in refund checks to deceased woman

FESTUS, Mo. — A Festus man mentioned the state of Missouri despatched hundreds of {dollars} value of checks to his deceased spouse even after he knowledgeable officers that his spouse handed away.

Tom Kaufmann contacted FOX 2’s You Paid For It staff when he obtained a bundle of checks within the mail from MO HealthNet. All of them have been made out to his spouse, Carrie. It’s all of the more unusual as a result of he had instructed the state weeks earlier that his spouse had handed away.

The state even despatched him a letter acknowledging the passing of his spouse, however per week later, Missouri despatched about 36 verify checks anyway. Every of them amounted to $128.

For the reason that checks have been solely in Carrie’s identify, Kaufmann couldn’t money them. He’s hoping the state will reissue the refunds in order that he can money them.

“I can’t do something with them,” Kaufmann mentioned. “They’re in her identify alone. I can’t even deposit them in a joint account as a result of I can’t forge her identify on these checks. And I obtained them 11 days after she had handed away.”

“I may use this cash, sir. I had my spouse cremated,” he continued. “I want to inter her in a funeral dwelling with a marker, and that will assist me tremendously with it.”

FOX 2 reached out to the Missouri Division of Social Companies, which runs MO HealthNet. The company had promised to research the problem however Kaufmann remains to be ready for solutions.

“Elliott, I don’t know what’s occurring with this,” mentioned Kaufmann. “That’s why I referred to as you as a result of the folks I’ve spoken with and MO HealthNet are of no assist.”