Social Security Disability Fraud?

Before we fall for anyone changing or replacing Social Security with some other politically-charged profiteering methodology, shouldn't we first ensure we have had a full accounting of it's present state. Shouldn't we at least be knowledgeable of what has caused the system to end up at the point of bankruptcy? You'll find some interesting reading in a Policy Analysis: Facilitating Fraud: How SSDI Gives Benefits to the Able Bodied by James M. Taylor on the CATO Institute site. It is an eye-opening expose that certainly heightens the suspicion that there are sweeping issues of poor management, administrative violations of federal regulations and public abuse and corruption of our own system. Social Security Disability (SSDI) was established as a source of income for persons who are so severely disabled that they cannot perform any meaningful work that exists in the national economy.

These facts taken from the report below certainly raise BIG questions:

• SSDI funds come directly from Social Security general revenues.

• The U.S. Bureau of the Census estimates that the nation’s overall population grew by just 7 percent between 1991 and 1998.

• SSA reports that it granted SSDI benefits to 47 percent more persons in 1998 than in 1991.

• More startling still, SSA paid out 77 percent more money to SSDI recipients in 1998 than in 1991. This certainly causes one to ask a few reflective questions:

DID WE MISS SOMETHING?

Was there an epidemic of severe disabilities going on between 1991-1998 that led to an increase of 47 percent more people being unable to work? 

Even if this were true, is it logical that 77 percent more SSDI dollars would be handed out over the same period?

In reflection, can we say we were secretly, even from ourselves, simultaneously suffering from spreading plagues and hyperinflation in our economy?

What's your take?

Debbe Kennedy

Visit the Global Dialogue Center

Comments

[kisha]

i think you all need to check your recepients well cause there are some peolpe thats having hard with learning to cope with not recieving anything. then you have others out here working out in the gyms and ain't nothing wrong with ibet you will find alot of people who suppose to besick and hurting in the gym lifting.i know cause they go everyday iam there.

[Debbe Kennedy]

Dear Kisha,
Thank you for your insightful comment and call-to-action. You are so right! Sadly, the funds that so many need are being sucked up by some who feel entitled to TAKE without conscience. I, too, have numbers of friends, who remain on "Social Security" year-after-year, while they remodel, ski and seem to do everything, but WORK.

Our system seems very broken and the observation you've made is not a POPULAR one to share. At least, this has been my experience. It seems we are like a classic family ---- we are in denial and don't want to see our dishonest family members exposed.

Think lying and stealing just a little or a lot seems to have become acceptable, as long as we don't really say anything outloud about it.

In the end, the best we can do is set an example in our own behavior and pray that we will be blessed to honor others by not stealing and lying to take what doesn't belong to us. THEN, we have to use our voices to be part of change.

Thank you again for writing in. Your comment has me thinking.

Debbe

[Ticked]

Go to youtube & search FatboyDan. He claims a mental disabillity, yet he can do anything anyone else can (and more than some). He drives, hunts (which means he posses weapons) and fishes. He has no problems speaking. He is an OBVIOUS scammer who needs to be sued for fraud! Go see for yourselves, and if someone knows how, report him. It's unfair to those in need for someone too lazy to work to be able to get a free pass.

[Debbe Kennedy, Perspectives BLOG]

Dear "Ticked,"
It is disappointing to see examples like this. Unfortunately, I think it is more a symptom of our society that we all own, both those who violate the intentions of such a program; and those of us that sit feeling helpless to figure out how to begin to insist on something different for our country and from ourselves. How did we allow this to happen? I ask myself all the time. What has happened to our collective conscience? To doing what is right?

I'm always moved by Gandhi's warning about the traits most perilous to humanity:

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice

I do think we have the opportunity to reform ourselves one-by-one to live more consciously about the impacts of our choices on others.

What do you think?
What possibilities do you see?
Where do we start from your point of view?

Debbe