My Mother Has Been Lying To Receive Ssi Benefits, And I’m Scared It’s Going To Ruin My Future.

I (18, MTF, Puerto Rican, Location: Puerto Rico and soon Georgia) was diagnosed with autism when I was around 3 or 4 years old. Following that, my mom applied for Social Security benefits, which we’ve been receiving off and on since then.

In 2019, we went to renew our application. Heres where it gets sticky. Since 2017, my family had been living outside of the U.S., only returning every six months to renew our visas. Despite this, when it came time to renew the SSI benefits, my mom falsely claimed we were still living in the U.S., even providing a home address we no longer lived at and listing a school I no longer attended.

Fast-forward to now: I’ve been living in a U.S. territory with my father to finish high school properly. I graduated two weeks ago and am waiting on my diploma. I’ve also been accepted into college and started preparing to begin HRT and transition (which I’m really excited about!).

Recently, my mom informed me that I had years of SSI back pay waiting, news I hadn’t heard before. I didn’t even know we were receiving money in my name. I never saw any of it. After talking with a more legally savvy aunt, she encouraged me to look into the situation to make sure I would receive what’s rightfully mine and to protect myself if my mother has been dishonest.

Today, I sat in on a call with Social Security to renew the application. During the call, the representative would ask me questions about my education, home address, medical providers, and living situation. Every time I started to answer, my mother cut in and answered for me or directed me to answer a specific way. She falsely claimed I had received a GED from a homeschooling service I hadn’t used since elementary school—a program that shut down three years ago. She lied about where I’ve been living, what doctors I’ve seen, and other critical details that are very easy to fact-check. Her explanation being that she “knows the system” and “fits in with your autism narrative.”

Its important to mention that my mom is fully a conspiracy theory crackpot. She fully believes vaccines cause autism, the world is set to superflat mode, and there “no way humans evolved from monkeys.” Even so, she has been taking this money for YEARS. I have a in person exam with a medical professional about this soon, and she said she would prepare a script to follow so I seem “more autistic” and can help her narrative and continue to get the benefits. Not to mention shes is Transphobic.

I’m really scared. I’m about to start college and start my life. I feel like all these lies might catch up to us and land me in serious trouble maybe even legal trouble through no fault of my own. I don’t want to commit fraud. I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t even know about it until recently. And its not like I dont WANT these benifits. And even so, if I do start a report what happens to the rest of my family? To our relationship? Am I overreacting? What should I do to protect myself and make sure I don’t get dragged down with her? Should I report this, or is there a safer way to separate myself legally and financially before things get worse? I don’t want to lose my future because my mother thinks she is above the system. What do I do? Am I overreacting?