Fleeing Felon Materials

What has become known as the “fleeing felon” issue arises in the context of Social Security benefits, when the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses the existence of an outstanding criminal warrant as the basis to discontinue a client’s benefits, based on provisions of the 1998 Welfare Reform Act that prohibit individuals who are fleeing prosecution on a criminal warrant from receiving benefits. The fleeing felon rule has been successfully challenged in a number of cases, often based on the fact that the individuals in question were unaware of the warrants and consequently had no intention to “flee.” The materials posted here include court decisions, relevant statutory and regulatory excerpts, and other advocacy materials that synopsize the applicable law and key strategies to address SSA’s misapplication of the law to deny or terminate client benefits.