ABINGDON, Va. — A southwest Virginia woman is expected to plead guilty to charges that she kept Social Security and black lung survivor’s benefits paid to her dead mother for 18 years.

Martha Williams has already signed a plea agreement to theft of government property and employee benefits fraud.

She is accused of forging her mother’s name on annual updates in order to continue collecting the benefits until 2021, even though her mother died in 2003. In total, she is accused of pocketing more than a quarter of a million dollars from the scheme.

Under deal with prosecutors, she is expected to be sentenced to less than a year in prison, after she pleads guilty May 23.