Try submitting a search on Google about Social Security disability and you will undoubtedly be bombarded with many stories from conservative news outlets about how the American public is attempting to defraud the government by receiving Social Security disability payments when they don’t deserve it. Rarely, do we see it publicized that the cases of fraud involving Social Security disability are extremely small, even tough that is the truth. Social Security disability remains an easy punching bag for conservatives and they never let the facts get in the way.
One way or another we can eventually get to the truth even through slanted news stories. Last month the Associated Press reported a story indicating that Social Security’s inspector general found evidence that $2 billion in benefit payments were given to people who did not qualify for disability payments. Obviously $2 billion worth of the taxpayer’s money is certainly a big deal and worth reporting on, but in what context?
The $2 billion wrongly handed out was over a seven-year period, which roughly equates to about $285 million per year, still a large junk of money and something to be concerned about, but $2 billion makes for better headlines.
Then we have to look at all the money Social Security paid out during this time that went accurately to people who were disabled and qualified for the disability programs. It turns out Social Security paid out $900 billion during this time, so the $2 billion worth of improper payments equates to about 0.2 percent of all payments.
No one is insisting that people who are not disabled should be receiving disability payments and Social Security should continue to stamp out fraud in its disability programs, but if headlines read that 99.8 percent of Social Security payments were proper over the last seven years, would there be outrage?
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