SSA Fraud Investigations Waste Taxpayer’s Money
THE SSA’S FRAUD INVESTIGATIONS
The SSA investigates people who apply for SSD benefits. How do they chose who to investigate? Most fraud allegations come from SSA employees. In fiscal year 2014, the SSA received more than 121,000 fraud allegations and more than 58,000 (almost half) of those came from SSA employees. In other words, when you talk on the phone to an SSA employee or go into an SSA office, that employee may decide to investigate you for fraud.
The SSA is claiming they are saving the taxpayer millions of dollars by doing these investigations. But when the SSA or the press publish the amount they are “saving” – they do their math by claiming they have saved all the money the disabled person would receive in a lifetime. That number assumes that a disabled person will never return to work and will live a normal life expectancy. Those are not sound assumptions to base “savings” upon. However, we are talking about the same organization that spent $300 million on a new computer system that doesn’t work.
THE FACTS ABOUT FRAUD AND APPLYING FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS
Is the SSA really saving the taxpayer money? Are people who receive disability benefits committing fraud? Let’s look at the facts.
Approximately 3 million people apply for disability benefits each year. Out of all of those people, 121,000 fraud allegations were filed. Out of the 121,000 fraud cases last year, 7000 of those cases resulted in an actual CDI (Cooperative Disability Investigation) investigation. (A CDI investigation typically means that an investigator uses surveillance to spy on the claimant.) Out of those CDI cases, 4100 cases resulted in a denial of benefits or a cessation of benefits. The other 65,000 fraud allegations were non-CDI cases. These cases resulted in around 1500 fraud investigations. Out of those, 1300 were brought to Federal or State courts for potential prosecution.
There are no numbers for how many of those 1300 cases were actually prosecuted or resulted in non-receipt of benefits. So, out of 3 million people filing for benefits, possibly 7400 people did not receive benefits because they may have committed fraud. The more accurate number is actually 4100, but let’s give the SSA the benefit of the doubt and say it is 7400. 7400 people, out of 3 million, might have lied? Wow.
VERY FEW PEOPLE WHO APPLY FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS ARE COMMITTING FRAUD
This is a minuscule number of people who might be committing fraud out of over 3 million people who apply for benefits. Yet, somehow, the “news” is reporting widespread fraud and abuse of the disability program. Additionally, government employees at the SSA are using your tax dollars, not on helping people with disabilities, but investigating a handful of people who might be committing fraud.
The SSA claims they are concerned about fraud, waste, and abuse of the taxpayer dollar. But, the truth is they are spending a lot of money to stop a few dishonest people. The SSA is wasting money and resources. They are also misusing our tax monies to investigate people who have done nothing wrong. These investigations are creating a bias against people with disabilities.
If you have questions or concerns about your disability case, contact Cannon Disability Law. We help people in Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and California. You can learn more about Utah SSD benefits here . Likewise, information about Nevada benefits and California benefits is here. Contact us for help. No matter where you live, we can help you win benefits.
