MARYSVILLE — A Marysville woman, 30, is being charged with fraud after allegedly cheating the state out of $47,000 for child care assistance.
The defendant took financial help from the state Child Care Subsidy Program between April 2015 and September 2017, according to charging papers filed in Snohomish County Superior Court on Tuesday.
The program is supposed to help working parents who struggle to pay for child care.
However, the combined salaries of the defendant and the father of her three children didn’t fall within the agency’s guidelines. Together, they made nearly $8,000 per month, according to court papers.
The mother told the Department of Social and Health Services that her husband didn’t live with her, court documents said. She allegedly gave DSHS documents signed by her husband to prove it.
Because they supposedly didn’t live together, records said, she didn’t report her husband’s income that totaled about $4,900 per month. She only used her own income, qualifying her to receive monthly payments between $350 and $450.
When the defendant attempted to reapply for the program in February 2016, the agency learned she applied for medical assistance with her husband. They both used the same address.
She allegedly responded by sending three statements from her mother, sister and brother-in-law, all stating that she and her husband didn’t live together.
DSHS gave her the green light and continued giving her child care assistance.
A DSHS investigator got involved not long after. The investigator contacted the apartment complex they lived in and was told that the mother and father had stayed in the same apartment since May 31, 2014.
The defendant has no criminal history.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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