PORTLAND — A Topsham couple charged with conspiring to defraud the Social Security Administration were sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to five months in prison and three years of supervised release, the first five months of which are to be served on home detention.

U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said in a news release that Jill Gerken, 62, and Thomas Gerken, 62, were charged with conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration by diverting Supplemental Security Income benefits. The benefits are paid to people who are blind, disabled or elderly and whose income is below specified levels. 

The Gerkens were ordered to pay $98,830 in restitution. 

The couple are parents of two disabled children and have been receiving SSI benefits since 2004. Jill Gerken, the designated payee, was required to use the funds for her children’s benefit and to “annually account for her expenditure of the funds,” according to the news release.

Between 2007-13, both children resided full time at an assisted living facility, and the Gerkens continued to use the SSI benefits for household expenses, including their mortgage, utilities and groceries, travel and books, according to the news release.

The Gerkens failed to pay the assisted living facility at that time, and falsely certified to SSA that they spent the benefit money on food and housing at the facility, according to the release. 

Special Agent-in-Charge of the Boston Division of the SSA’s Office of Inspector General, Scott Antolik, said, “Representative payee fraud is an egregious offense, not only because it involves the misuses of Social Security funds, but because it affects some of the most vulnerable members of society who cannot manage their own affairs.”