Social Security disability fraud is rare Facts,

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Social Security disability fraud is rare

Facts, not anecdotes. The underlying theme of righty posts about alleged fraud is that 'somebody is taking advantage of me'.

ALWAYS there is somebody else who is making your life tougher for you..

By Katy Neas — 01/16/14 11:00 AM EST 41comments
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill


It takes a lot more than just being out of work to quality for SSDI. Workers must have paid into the Social Security system for long enough to be covered in case of disability. Additionally, an applicant must provide extensive medical evidence of a severe disability, illness or injury.

The disability standard is so strict that fewer than four in ten applicants are approved for disability benefits, even after all stages of appeal.

Many are terminally ill -- Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries are over three times more likely to die than others their age, and nearly one in five men and one in women die within five years of receiving benefits.

During today’s hearing, you’ll likely hear rhetoric about the huge growth in the SSDI rolls. It’s true that SSDI is serving more people, but this growth is almost entirely due to changes in demographics. A new study puts this in stark numbers: increases over the past four decades are almost entirely (90 percent) due to population growth, the aging of the baby boom generation into the high-disability years, and the entry of women in the workforce in greater numbers in the 1970s and 80s so that more are now insured based on their own contributions. Together, these three factors account for 94% of growth from 1990 – 2008.

The Social Security Administration operates on a tremendously lean administrative budget, equal to just 1.4 percent of benefits paid each year – and works hard to ensure program integrity.

But it has recently been deprived of the administrative resources it needs to conduct vital program integrity work– a penny-wise, pound- foolish decision.

Congress holds the purse strings, and should provide the Social Security Administration with the resources it needs to ensure that benefits are paid to the right person, in the right amount, and at the right time — and to implement the array of critical checks and safeguards that exist in current law.

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/econo...ud-is-rare

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