Posted on 01/09/2005 7:35:33 AM PST by Pharmboy
January 9, 2005 -- Two teen sons of an Upper East Side heiress say they are so desperate to get away from their abusive mom, they've asked the state attorney general to bust her for welfare fraud. Jason Jacobs, 17, and his brother Jeffrey, 16, say their mom, Linda, pockets benefits while refusing to buy them food or pay the electric bill at their $4,000-a-month apartment. The prep-school kids — accustomed to a privileged life of Hawaiian vacations and East Hampton summers — claim they're abused, neglected and were recently offered a dinner of half an apple. So they've become amateur sleuths — collecting bank statements and benefits records and delivering the documents to their father, Gary Jacobs, who passed them to welfare-fraud investigators last week. Going on welfare, they say, is a despicable ploy to convince a judge to slap new child-support payments on their financially beleaguered father.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You're right...it is hers. But she is getting several thousand dollars from her family and commiting welfare fraud to try to milk more from her ex. She was also getting "spousal maintenance for several years!
Usually I am on the other side of this issue. I have been awarded child support for my kids. I just haven't got it for more than 2 years. The courts awarded me $150 a month...for 2 kids, so he quit his job.
I just think this man may be being judged too harshly by people who have no idea what he is doing or not doing.
NONE of the people mentioned in the article show up on a web search except in the Post article. I think it is completely phoney.
I have known a lot of good, decent wives and mothers in my life, and hope I have been one myself. However, I have also known a few who have snagged some poor slob for a husband, had three or four "meal tickets", then cut the poor slob off from the method of obtaining any more "meal tickets" (children), proceeded to become very demanding about houses, cars, trinkets, and possessions, and have been able to make a career out of it (certainly didn't work at a career themselves).
The method seemed to be being smart enough to be a good enough judge of character to know that the poor guy would be loyal enough and love his children enough, or be hung up enough in "image projection", or both, to put up with the women's nonsense.
Of course, the poor guys in question bear some responsibility for putting up with it, but what you gonna do? Most of these guys wouldn't hit a woman, or even argue very much with this type of woman. One guy I knew handled his situation for years by having a job where he was gone all week and just home on the weekends long enough to see his children. It still seems to be working for this one particular woman, though; he now has her ensconced in the "right" zip code in the big, fancy house, with the sort of car she "deserves" to drive and all that jazz.
Another one I know has maintained the complete loyalty of her husband (despite her contention that sex is only for having children) and her male children, which I am sure is sometimes hard on their wives.
Well, whatdoya expect when the marriage is no fault and the dad is taken out. The mum can do what she wants to the kids and can exploit the government.
By the way, I know of some dad who did the same thing as these kids, denounce wife for welfare fraud... guess what... he was the one deemed suspicious and threatened with jail as a result.....
New York City is terribly expensive to live in. What puzzles me is this woman is supposed to be an heiress. That word suggests some who has more money than the average person. If that is the case, how on earth is she getting welfare?
Great move, if she is found guilty of fraud, she gets jail, loses custody and the father's income stays complete as the children go to their dad's house and go back to the good life.
The goal of the cut-off, Jason said, was to "create an image" of poverty and "put financial pressure on my father."
Gary Jacobs was never required to pay child support under the divorce settlement but was ordered to give Linda $3,500 a month in spousal maintenance, which he did until three years ago.
But his ex-wife never complained after he stopped making the payments, he said.
"All these years, she never asked me for any money," he said. "And there's a reason. Her family is wealthy. Plus she walked away from the marriage with close to a million dollars."
Jason, a senior at a private Manhattan school that charges $23,000 a year in tuition, says he buys his own food and staples with money he saved from after-school jobs and summer work as a camp counselor.
As for school, Gary paid the tuition up until three years ago, when Linda agreed to take over. This year, the kids said, the school is giving them substantial aid.
The state attorney general's office is looking at seven monthly bank statements the boys grabbed that show she's received at least $59,900 this year from a mysterious source. The last statement is from October; she allegedly began receiving benefits in November.
According to the state's welfare rules, a family of three would need to show an annual income of $15,670 or less and have $2,000 or less in assets or cash to qualify for assistance. Cash gifts or loans from a family member count as income.
A spokesman for the state agency that runs welfare would not comment on what benefits, if any, Jacobs may be receiving.
"But I cannot envision a situation where a person paying $4,000 a month in rent would be eligible for benefits," said spokesman Michael Hayes.
Linda Jacobs' late father, Irving Pauker, who died in September, amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune in apparel manufacturing and real estate.
Still, even Gary isn't sure what money his ex-wife might have.
She did receive about $500,000 in the divorce settlement and had stocks, bonds and other funds that pushed the total to $1 million, he says.
She's also left a $25,000 deposit on the East 85th Street apartment where she lives with the boys, records show.
The kids said they discovered their mom was on welfare after Con Ed shut the lights off for three months of non-payment. She went to a welfare office in Brooklyn to get help with the electrical bill, they said.
They believe she gets about $600 a month in benefits.
All while making their lives a living hell, they said.
She's twice called cops on them — for allegedly taking her welfare card and arguing with her about money, they said.
The squalor and conflict is a far cry from the worry-free life the boys once led, living in a million-dollar apartment on East End Avenue, taking vacations to Hong Kong and eating at The Palm and Chin Chin.
When they weren't vacationing abroad, the family headed out to their $1.2 million beach house in East Hampton.
And Linda benefited as well: full-time household help, shopping sprees at Bloomingdale's, a gym membership at Equinox.
But that was before the couple's 18-year marriage dissolved.
The bitter breakup in 1999 ended with a judge awarding custody to the mother, despite allegations by both kids that she beat them. Jason submitted photos of his bruised legs to the court.
"She used to throw textbooks at me," Jeffrey said.
Both boys want to live with their father, a fashion-industry consultant. He now resides in New Jersey with his girlfriend of five years and her two kids.
"The last seven years have been hell," Jason said.
Linda Jacobs, reached on her cellphone, hung up when a reporter identified himself. She did not answer follow-up calls.
Let me reassure, some women do love their kids.
Guess what, not in a divorce where he's being forced to pay child support! Her money is being untouched, while his paycheck is the only one supporting the kids! Yeah, that sounds all fair and legal-like.
I hope she gets an all-divorced male jury and they toss her ass in Rikers for child neglect and abuse, and criminal fraud.
"Both boys want to live with their father, a fashion-industry consultant. He now resides in New Jersey with his girlfriend of five years and her two kids."
Further proof that this woman is a monster. There is no way on God's green earth that New York kids would want to leave the Big Apple for New Jersey if they weren't in hell. ;)
You're right. There is much more going on here than meets the eye. Talk about a dysfunctional family!
"Bush's fault"
It was clever and funny the first thousand times it was posted.
I think it is up to about a google times posted, and it ain't funny or clever now.
Your post is funny but lacks clever. Better get a fresh bowl of cheerios.
Not standing up for the mom but there is a possibility these kids may be angry with her about something and aren't doing this out of concern. I doubt that it has anything to do with them not getting fed and more that they are having to "rough" it.
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