Investigators allege a couple orchestrated a welfare scam by repeatedly marrying and divorcing each other twelve times. This exploited a pension loophole, allowing them to fraudulently claim compensation after each wedding. Despite the seemingly tumultuous legal history, witnesses, including relatives and neighbours, assert that the couple never truly separated, maintaining a happy and seemingly “model” marriage while continuing to live together throughout this period, Newsweek reported.
A bizarre case of pension fraud, where an Austrian woman allegedly collected multiple widow’s pensions despite being married, has garnered international attention. The story, initially reported by the German newspaper Bild, details how a 73-year-old woman received over $342,000 in unjustified widow’s pension payments over the years. This followed the death of her first husband in 1981.
However, in 1982, she remarried. This typically would have terminated her widow’s pension. Yet, instead of losing the benefit, she received a $28,405 “severance payment” as compensation.
An Austrian court ruled in April that these payments were unjustified, triggering a formal fraud investigation that commenced last week. The case, which unfolded in Graz, Austria, has raised significant legal and ethical questions.
A couple who have been married and divorced 12 times over the past 43 years are now under investigation for fraud, Austrian media reports. The unusual case involves a woman who repeatedly regained her widow’s pension following her divorce from her husband, a lorry driver whose job often kept him away from home.
Their first divorce occurred in 1988, after about six years of marriage, with both citing the strain caused by the husband’s frequent absences. Following the divorce, the woman’s widow’s pension was reinstated. However, when the pair remarried, she lost access to the pension again but received 27,000 pounds in compensation.
This cycle of marriage, divorce, and financial claims continued for decades. Each of their marriages lasted roughly three years on average, and in total, the woman has been a bride at 13 weddings, with the same man as her groom for 12 of them.
The couple themselves initiated legal proceedings when they sued the pension fund after the wife’s most recent divorce in May 2022. Pension authorities had refused to reinstate her widow’s pension, citing the suspicious pattern of their marital history.
In March 2023, Austria’s Supreme Court in Vienna dismissed their case, ruling that “the repeated marriage and subsequent divorce from the same spouse is abusive if the marriage was never truly broken, and the divorces occurred solely to claim a widow’s pension.” Witnesses told police that the couple’s relationship had remained intact throughout the years.
Following the court’s decision, the Styrian State Police Directorate officially launched a fraud investigation last Tuesday, with a trial expected to follow. While the couple claims to have divorced for the 12th time, authorities have refused to recognize the separation, meaning the pair are still legally considered married.
