[LostInBayport]

BTW, the biggies are obviously back pain and mental illness, both of which are easily faked.

Interestingly enough, the first graph in the article shows those two items in the lower percentages in 1961, but they have reached the top by 2011.

I'm not saying it is all fakery, as I am someone who has severe bouts of back pain (as in 'I've fallen and I WON'T get up 'cause it hurts like hell to move'), but the 'mental illness' part is certainly abused. I have personally witnessed more than one ambulatory, healthy-looking and coherent young man telling another person how he was just approved for SSDI. I find it hard to believe that these young men are 'unable to work'.

One area I would approve of increased funding would be in a benefits fraud division that actually got results, the way insurance companies would send agents into the field to get photographs of the permanently debilitated car crash victim frolicking on the ski slopes. I would love a job like that, assuming the guilty would get their benefits stripped away in the end and that the agency wouldn't become another day care for relatives of politicians.

[Carry_Okie]

Interestingly enough, the first graph in the article shows those two items in the lower percentages in 1961, but they have reached the top by 2011.

This despite massive investment in reducing back injuries, more automated equipment, and OSHA regulations breathing down business' necks.

One area I would approve of increased funding would be in a benefits fraud division that actually got results,

The better answer is to get rid of government disability entirely. When charity was disbursed by the local church or civic organization, it was VERY hard to fake an injury because these were people who saw the "victim" frequently.