The Social Security Administration’s disability program is losing billions of dollars a year because they are overpaying certain recipients, and paying disability payments to people who really don’t qualify for them. Meanwhile, I have patients who truly are disabled, and he get rejected by Social Security. Obviously, things need to change in that program.
The SSA has “established procedures to detect and prevent the vast majority of improper payments,” Grassley said. “However, as this report shows, they need to make additional efforts to fully address the problem.”
The report was based on a sampling of 1,532 beneficiaries. Of these, 292 were overpaid, had payments stopped because they were no longer eligible, or both, totaling about $2.5 million.
One beneficiary with a psychiatric disorder began receiving benefits in 1986. She was overpaid more than $28,000 because she began working in 2001, after completing a nurse assistant program.
A beneficiary and his dependents received more than $47,000 in benefits to which they were not entitled between 2001 and 2004. The man had a history of polio but was working at a level that made him ineligible for benefits.
