Posted on 09/09/2012 6:33:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
Today, we're going to demonstrate that the policies of multiple agencies of the U.S. federal government are responsible for enabling criminal disability fraud in the United States, with the cost of the fraud accelerating the pending insolvency of Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which will put the program's legitimate beneficiaries at high risk of having their benefits cut after the fund has been exhausted.
Current projections indicate that the Social Security trust fund for disability will be fully depleted in 2016, just four years from the present. The projections from the previous year had indicated that would not happen until 2018. The large shift in the timing of the projected trust fund depletion toward the present in just a year's time indicates a strongly deteriorating fiscal situation for the government "safety net" program.
In Part 1 of our series, we discovered that the U.S. Social Security Administration has effectively established a "no-challenge" policy for disability insurance claims made by applicants over the age of 50, which allows these individuals to obtain Social Security disability benefits far more easily than individuals Age 49 or younger. This arbitrary policy is what enables these individuals to receive Social Security disability insurance payments, even though they might not otherwise be able to obtain those benefits if they were held to the same standards as those under Age 50.
We observe the likely greater incidence of disability fraud as we more closely examine the surge in the number of Social Security disability beneficiaries in the years since 2007, which coincide with the Great Recession. Here, we found that approximately 695,000 more individuals have been added to the nation's government disability rolls during this time than the level that would be consistent with those of pre-Great Recession years.
The chart above, showing the number of "surplus" or "excess" Social Security disability beneficiaries added in each year since 2007, indicates that the recession is the driving factor behind the increased number of individuals obtaining government disability payments, as the timing of the surge coincides with the expiration of government unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who were negatively impacted by the economic contraction, which officially ran from December 2007 through June 2009. The nation's sluggish economic recovery accounts for the decline in the number of surplus or excess Social Security disability program beneficiaries measured in 2011.
That connection between unemployment insurance benefits and disability insurance benefits brings us to where outright fraud is taking place today:
As many as 117,000 Americans simultaneously collect unemployment benefits and federal disability each year, a form of double-dipping that investigators say costs taxpayers $850 million annually and should be ended.
To understand why such "double-dipping" constitutes fraud, please note the following general requirements for each program:
While there can be some small overlap in the detailed eligibility requirements for these programs that would legitimately allow a handful of individuals to receive benefits from both simultaneously, the vast majority of individuals currently receiving both unemployment insurance benefit payments and disability insurance payments do not fall within that narrow category and are therefore committing acts of fraud. In general, legitimate beneficiaries of these social safety net programs can draw funds from one program, or the other, but not both at the same time.
That multiple government agencies are involved in enabling this form of fraud is confirmed because the U.S. Department of Labor is responsible for administering the unemployment insurance program, while the Social Security Administration administers the Disability Insurance program. But worse than that is the reason why the fraud has been allowed to continue:
The reason for the double-spending, investigators at the Government Accountability Office reported this week, is good old-fashioned lack of communication.
Put simply, the Labor Department that funds unemployment benefits and the Social Security Administration that funds disability payments don't compare notes, leavings tens of thousands of Americans each month to collect two checks from a stretched-thin government treasury.
It would seem that the bureaucrats and politicians who are responsible for overseeing these programs learned nothing from the failure of government agencies to share information among themselves that enabled the criminal terrorist murders of 2,996 Americans on 11 September 2001 to proceed unchallenged.
This time however, the Government Accountability Office's report indicates that the annual savings that might be realized by ending this kind of fraud adds up to $850 million.
That's a savings of roughly 1 dollar out of each $1400 that is currently projected to be consumed in the nation's projected deficit of 1.21 trillion dollars for 2012! And it would be painless, because the people who are honestly playing by the rules would not be affected!
This is exactly the sort of thing that should be a no-brainer for a fiscally responsible politician - it's as close to low-hanging fruit as there is to be found anywhere in the U.S. federal government's budget. We wonder if any political candidate will rise to the occasion of acting to end the government's practices and policies that enable such costly fraud.
Of course it is intentional, but not just by 0bama. Remember when President Bush wanted to give the people a choice to invest either in pension funds or those close to retirement go with Social security and those already on Social Security? The left acted like as if investing in your pension fund was such a horrible thing and ridiculed him for it
Well even if they have various names they should not have various SS numbers.
I am not naïve enough to believe it doesn’t happen but even so it is no reason not to pursue a relatively simple procedure to reduce the fraud in the system.
Eventually the criminals will work around this but you have to do what you can do.
That’s Greece. This is about the United States. Different places
This will be fairly easy to stop. The military has been dealing with false disability claims for years.
To start with, compile a list of legal disability claims, and compare it to what prognosis, if any, is used for treatment.
For example, is someone is missing a limb, it is pretty straightforward that they would need at least a small permanent disability to overcome that handicap. So they are in the “always good” category.
However, if someone is disabled over a complaint for “severe back pain”, first determine if they have a prescribed course of treatment, therapy or amelioration.
That is, if they have severe, crippling back pain, but are not seeing a doctor for it regularly, and have no prescribed medications or course of treatment, then even if they are indigent, they should be in the Medicaid program. If they refuse, they are not disabled.
This works by making medicine a minor hassle. If people really have a disability, a minor hassle is no problem, because they have a strong need. But if they are faking, a minor hassle is a major hassle, because they have to visit doctors, undergo therapy, at least regularly pick up prescription medicines, etc. They want to be home watching TV and drinking beer, not spending their time taking care of an imaginary problem.
The next step is to grade disability by retirement income. If they are getting a tiny income, they get full disability if they are fully disabled. But if they have a six figure retirement income, they do not need disability.
The downside to this is that it does require some degree of disability review on a periodic basis.
BTW, there are plenty of people in the USA who are blind who also work hard at being shopkeepers and restaurant owners.
The operating system should not matter.
All of the systems (I believe) track recipients by SS number. Even if you have to resort to print recognition software to convert printed list to digital list of recipient by SS number you can come up with a list of individuals double dipping the system.
I think some of these people borrow the handicap tag from a relative who is disabled.
Illegal, but they are just following the role model of the president
***I personally know people who are able-bodied who are on disability. They make up stuff like back problems, knee problems, etc.****
Sounds like my worthless brother-in-law (If you know him he probably owes you money). When Reagan became President he quit work with the claim...”I’m not gonna pay taxes to Reagan!”
He has not worked since 1981. He took a high school injury, parleyed it into a Vietnam war injury and has been on disability since.
He got very fat, which did break down his knees and managed to get knee replacements from the VA.
It t burned me up to watch him work on his roof, mow the yard, rebuild engines and vehicles for his own use, then when a visitor showed up he grabbed his cane and hobbled out to meet them. You would have thought he was on his last legs.
Then when the visitor leaves, the cane is thrown in the corner, the limp disappeared and he went back to piddling around the house.
Isn’t amazing how legislators rarely lose votes for mismanaging government but do lose votes for doing what is obviously needed to prevent a catastrophe.
Yeah...I know...also I have seen blind people working as receptionists...and handling incoming calls to multiple extensions.
The other side of the coin is found on the Greek island of Ikaria
There's no magic bullet to living beyond the age of 100. But some places are on the right track.
National Geographic writer Dan Buettner seeks out "Blue Zones," a few pockets around the world where a higher number of people live for a remarkably long time.
The remote island of Ikaria in Greece is one hotspot of exceptional human longevity. Here, there are more healthy people over 90 than any other place on the planet.
Buettner and his team spent 15 months studying the centenarians of Ikaria. The trip was documented in a series of videos, in which the researchers identified eight major secrets to reaching a record-setting age
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ikaria-greece-longevity-secrets-2012-7?op=1#ixzz25z56aIz4
Regards
Isn’t amazing how legislators rarely lose votes for mismanaging government but do lose votes for doing what is obviously needed to prevent a catastrophe.
SSI is a wholesale scam.
SSI is through SS so the “takers” can pretend they paid into the system and just had bad luck. Sure some SSI is legit and I am not including them as “takers”.
If we want to give free disability put the program under its own hat, don’t tie it to SS which participants had to pay for all through their working years.
Cloward-Piven™, socialism is not for sissy’s.
It will be just the same old stuff: mess up the country and blame the republicans.
That’s what’s going on. Back pain with depression as a
secondary diagnosis is the ticket.
I went on SS when I turned 62 but not on disability. Then when I turned 65 I went on full SS and Medicare
Of course you have to take the forced withdrawal from any other plan that you may have.
So the strategy is to use the earned cash flow to convert the 401K into a Roth.
Spokeshave who is in this category.
I, too, have a relative who can work around the yard and house, go on vacations, go to the casino unaided - but around town the cane comes out accompanied by the grimace with every step.
Yeah, like the proprietor of "Ray's Music Exchange" in The Blues Brothers. /s
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