Tsarnaev Family Received $100,000 In Welfare Benefits Including Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing, Cash Assistance: Details Emerge

Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his family pocketed $100,000 in benefits, new reports suggest. The Tsarnaev family reportedly received $100,000 or more in taxpayer-funded welfare benefits up through 2012.  State government officials, including Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, have resisted divulging specific details regarding the welfare benefits the Boston bombers and their parents may have received.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev is the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings who died in a shootout with police last Friday following a massive manhunt. His brother, Dzhokhar, is the other suspect and is currently being held in prison.

The benefits the family received from the state of Massachusetts and the federal government appear to have included cash assistance, food stamps, and Section 8 housing.

The Tsarnaev family, including Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, his wife, his 3-year-old daughter, his parents, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, all appear to have recived benefits via public assistance. Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly had very little or no steady employment history.

State officials from have been reluctant to provide any specifics about the welfare benefits the family received.  The House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, a committee of the legislature, is reviewing hundreds of documents collected from state agencies that have reportedly provided assistance to the suspects or to their families since 2002. They have now received about 500 documents. The documents have not yet been made public.  One source who has seen the documents said the Tsarnaev family received "every conceivable public benefit available out there." Another said, "The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning."

Because the Tsarnaev family had political refugee status, the State Department of Transitional Assistance coordinated or provided most of the benefits they received. One source said the amount of state and federal benefits likely totaled over $100,000 in the past decade.