Report: Social Security overpaid disability benefits by $17B

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security overpaid disability beneficiaries by nearly $17 billion over the past decade, a government watchdog said Friday, raising alarms about the massive program just as it approaches the brink of insolvency.

Many payments went to people who earned too much money to qualify for benefits, or to those no longer disabled. Payments also went to people who had died or were in prison.

In all, nearly half of the 9 million people receiving disability payments were overpaid, according to the results of a 10-year study by the Social Security Administration's inspector general.

Social Security was able to recoup about $8.1 billion, but it often took years to get the money back, the study said.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3804bc4303d04d55a0aba26f086d4eac/report-social-security-overpaid-disability-benefits-17b

[randys1]

1. Gonna happen, the better our computers get the less this will happen.

I am much more concerned about allowing the cap to continue on Soc Sec

[djean111]

2. So they did recoup almost half. Wish there was as much angst about the trillions lost to the MIC.

[Sherman A1]

5. Agreed

[Scuba]

19. /\_/\_This right here_/\_/\

[cstanleytech]

3. Didnt I recently read that the DoD cannot account for 6 or 7 trillion? 17 billion is a drop in the

bucket compared to that.

[groundloop]

4. So instead of fixing the problems let's gut the entire program and to hell with people who need it

And I call bullshit on "approaches the brink of insolvency". From what I've read Social Security is just fine for several decades, and if they'd get rid of the cap on the Social Security tax it would be good to go forever.

[cstanleytech]

7. Different program.

http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/page5-13.html
My mother was on disability for years before she died and trust me Social Security disability sucks as it pays very little like only 700 a month and thats it, the only semi decent thing was the medical.

[Alkene]

11. +1 n/t

[jwirr]

15. I am very upset because I am on SSI and started at the age of 60 on SSDI. I think this article is

full of lies and inaccuracies. Starting with the one you have mentioned. According to the article much of this was agency errors. And they did a study of a small group and inferred from there to the whole group to determine the money involved.

This whole thing is another rethug effort to justify destroying this part of Social Security. Divide and conqueror. They are so selfish and hateful that they do not care that they are trying to deny help to some of the most vulnerable people in this world. And they also are openly denying that doctors are inventing disabilities and they are fake. These include mental illness, chronic pain and others.

Wonder if anyone is going to stand up and fight for this program?

[chapdrum]

6. This is GOP disinformation

From what I've read, the program is not insolvent. The thoughtfulness expressed by Orrin Hatch over the putative overpayment is quite touching. Note too that the "government watchdog" mentioned is not named in the article. In the distant past, a straight piece of reportage, especially from Associated Press, would never have stated or implied that there is an easy fix, as here.

The shameless beat goes on.

[former9thward]

12. So what are you reading?

I read the SS Trustees report. I guess they are giving out "GOP disinformation".

Social Security’s Disability Insurance (DI) program satisfies neither the
Trustees’ long-range test of close actuarial balance nor their short-range
test of financial adequacy and faces the most immediate financing shortfall
of any of the separate trust funds. DI Trust Fund reserves expressed as
a percent of annual cost (the trust fund ratio) declined to 62 percent at the
beginning of 2014, and the Trustees project trust fund depletion late in
2016, the same year projected in the last Trustees Report. DI costs have
exceeded non-interest income since 2005 and the trust fund ratio has
declined in every year since peaking in 2003. While legislation is needed
to address all of Social Security’s financial imbalances, the need has
become most urgent with respect to the program’s disability insurance
component. Lawmakers need to act soon to avoid automatic reductions in
payments to DI beneficiaries in late 2016.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/TRSUM/tr14summary.pdf

[Igel]

13. We're talking apples and oranges.

Not everybody's clear unless we read closely and carefully and track definitions.

The DI trust fund is running low. It's separately funded. Nobody, AFAIK, has discussed a real remedy to this, although the usual remedy--increase tax rate or taxable income--is an evergreen (it's the hardly novel solution to any government budget shortfall). DI will probably pay out, I've read, about 80% of the benefits once the trust fund is exhausted. However, the payments are already low. That'll happen, if the trend continues, in late 2016. It's near. The problem isn't necessarily just reducing payments to people, but the very idea of a portion of government going insolvent. The SSA has no authority to borrow separate from Congress (then again, it has no authority to sequester its funds, apart from what Congress has said).

Since the trust fund is at less than $60 billion, well, $17 billion is a relevant number. The shortfall is around $30 billion per year, and if they overpay $1-2 billion per year, that's 3-7% of the shortfall. That's not to be sneezed at (if you were threatened with a budget cut of 5% you'd pitch a fit. That's what overpayments do to the DI trust fund: an income reduction of around 5%. The difference is whether it's your money or not.)

The SSI trust fund will, most estimates have it, pay out about 75% of what recipients are entitled to under the law. That trust fund will run out in around 2033, last I heard. The specific year doesn't much matter, to be honest, however much some stress over the details. The year keeps changing because it depends on projected revenues and those change with the economic forecast as the data varies and the assumptions vary. As the insolvency date gets closer the year insolvency strikes will stop varying as much.

[MFrohike]

18. It's not insolvent

Social Security is accounted for as a separate expense, but that separate entry doesn't make it any less a liability of the federal government. As the federal government cannot run out of money, Social Security, as a program of that government, can never be insolvent.

[PSPS]

8. Over a decade. That's 1.7 billion a year out of 700 - a rounding error.

In other words, payments were 99.8% accurate. I'll take that any day. This is just another shot in the war to give the trust fund to wall street and, thus, into the pockets of the GOP "campaign contributors."

[DJ13]

9. Thats probably less than the amount they saved

by claiming there was no inflation three years in a row (in the midst of the worst economic downturn in 80 years....), not giving any COLA's in those years.

[TexasBushwhacker]

10. Headline should read

10 Year Audit shows disability payments 99.98% accurate.

It's all in how you look at it.

Can they say the same about the DOD?

[They_Live]

14. + 1000

[jwirr]

16. Thank you.

[AZ Progressive]

17. This is a non-story being stretched to make a story

Seriously, notice how they put it over a 10 year period to make it sound like much more money.

[hollowdweller]

20. This is basically good news

People may get up in arms that they paid that extra money that could have been saved, but it shows Social Security is trying to identify potential sources of savings to extend the trust fund.

OK so the SS disability program doesn't have nearly the people needed to keep track of all of what is going on. However under Obama they were allowed to hire more people which helped. One of the big problems with Social Security and Disability is a lot of the workers are older. They all started when gov't service was a good job. They are ready to retire. Then the pay is not nearly so good now as when all the ready to retire people started and they are having a big problem filling jobs because nowdays gov't service means more work and less pay.

OK so you have people who die and they keep getting checks. I'm not sure about now, but for a long time if the family didn't report it it was hard to know those people had died. Sometimes when I did disability claims we'd get word that the claimant had died while I was processing the case. However it was also common for me to call to ask something and to find out the person had died and nobody told us.

Then people go back to work. If they work under SGA level they continue to get their checks but often they go over SGA level and then don't report it. When I worked for disability I would be working on somebodies case and need to call them for some reason and they had gone back to work but hadn't told us. Not because they were consciously defrauding the gov't, just a lot of times claimants esp SSI ones just don't think to do stuff.

Then you have people who have improved from when they were allowed. In the 80's Reagan changed the listings and a lot of people who had been approved were denied. This led to a national outcry and they actually stopped doing CDR's for years. CDR are when SSA re reviews the claim to make sure the person is still disabled. This is supposed to be done every 3 years for non permanent and every 7 years for permanent impairments. However they really don't have the manpower to do it that often so they do what they can. In recent years they have tried to do more CDR's because for every dollar they spend on processing them is more than paid for by removing people who are working, have died or are no longer disabled.

So basically this is Social Security realizing that there are some savings to be had and trying to figure out a way to get the savings. Not a massive fraud or anything.