Time to crack down on Social Security Disability fraud? (dollar, money, government)

[jteskal]

Let's hope so.

[Ceece]

Originally Posted by Hoonose

It is not a typical circumstance where someone seriously disabled becomes able bodied. But it can happen.

https://www.disability-benefits-help...nefits-forever

If it is fraud they were never seriously disabled. I do wonder if we are too generous with our list of disabilities that we approve though. I haven't looked at it in many years and have no idea what constitutes an SSDI qualifying disability anymore, but I remember thinking some of it was ridiculous. Many people can't work jobs that make them self supporting for various reasons but they shouldn't all be getting SSDI as if it's some kind of backdoor universal basic income. I'll have to do some reading now...

[ditchoc]

There needs to be more oversight on ALL government spending.

[unit731]

Originally Posted by Ceece

If it is fraud they were never seriously disabled. I do wonder if we are too generous with our list of disabilities that we approve though. I haven't looked at it in many years and have no idea what constitutes an SSDI qualifying disability anymore, but I remember thinking some of it was ridiculous. Many people can't work jobs that make them self supporting for various reasons but they shouldn't all be getting SSDI as if it's some kind of backdoor universal basic income. I'll have to do some reading now...

That would be excellent to obtain some real data and statistics. Thanks.

[Hoonose]

Originally Posted by Ceece

If it is fraud they were never seriously disabled. I do wonder if we are too generous with our list of disabilities that we approve though. I haven't looked at it in many years and have no idea what constitutes an SSDI qualifying disability anymore, but I remember thinking some of it was ridiculous. Many people can't work jobs that make them self supporting for various reasons but they shouldn't all be getting SSDI as if it's some kind of backdoor universal basic income. I'll have to do some reading now...

As a doc I did disability exams for AZ and CA in the '80's and '90's. My exam came later in the patient's evaluation process, and almost all had serious physical problems.

[Frank DeForrest]

Originally Posted by ditchoc

There needs to be more oversight on ALL government spending.

old dogs, new tricks?
Its called not letting them get their hands on it in the first place.

[aileesic]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

SSDI can vary greatly from person to person and can be much higher than $750/mo and can also be lower.

SSI is fixed at $750/mo and doesn't vary from person to person.

Mentally ill disabled often get the $750/mo SSI because they don't qualify for SSDI due to not having worked enough. Although I suppose some collect a death benefit off their parent's SS if the parent died and if they are considered a dependent due to being mentally disabled.

Some mentally ill have worked enough yet not paid enough to draw more than the lowest amount.

[yspobo]

Originally Posted by FatBob96

The problem with that "gotcha" approach to weeding out disability fraud is that just because someone may be capable of doing things occasionally that a casual observer may think is inconsistent with their disability doesn't mean that they're capable of doing it 8 hours a day 40 hours a week.

It's like when you see someone with handicap plates walk out their car and into a store.....not all handicaps are readily apparent to others.

My father and his current wife wrote a letter to disability (after I had refused to let my SSI money be deposited into his bank account) claiming I was a fraud. I received a copy of the letter that started the fraud investigation and currently has me in danger of death. He wrote it as though my daughter had wrote it. (My daughter did sign an affidavit saying she didn't write it in front of a notary.) The presumption with the government was always that I am a fraud, however; they couldn't come up with actual evidence so they twisted facts and altered things to make it appear I was less bad off than I am. They even had a doctor that never even saw me write up a report saying I could physically do things that I have never been able to do (I have a crooked knee on one leg and cannot bend at knees to proper lift things, for example, so I have never been able to safely lift a lot of weight without injuring myself). The judge took this report as gospel to my supposed capabilities, which took me off guard during the hearing the other day. I would be hard pressed to strip down naked in court to show off my crooked leg to prove it?

This letter started an investigation that may have well cost near six figures. They dispatched fraud investigators to follow me around. They accosted me one day and interrogated me under false pretenses, although I knew at the time they were lying because my PTSD causes me to be so hypervigilant that I can usually tell that someone is following me. The reason they gave didn't coincide with their following me around the way they were. The 'evidence' that I was supposedly a fraud was stuff like they saw me eating at a fast food restaurant without showing signs of anxiety or they saw me talking on a cell phone. They twisted when I was homeless during the wintertime the previous year to make it sound like I was on vacation. They lied about the distance between where I was living and the fast food restaurant and claimed I walked there every day to try and say I was lying about my asthma. They even lied and said my food stamps had been cut off as though I had committed food stamp fraud, but I went to the food stamp office and got proof from the government itself that it wasn't true.

So, the SSA and the AG's office has been committing fraud to frame me for fraud. I have one primary doctor and five specialists. I have Crohn's so bad that the doctor has me on IV therapy to try and get it under control. But yet the government is claiming I am a fraud and could 'work if I wanted to' but they have zero evidence of that.

When people go out seeking to 'prove' someone is a fraud, they will do anything it takes to confirm their biases.

If I lose my appeal and disability then I am a dead woman. I will either die in the streets in severe pain (I only have my housing because I am on disability) or I can suicide my way out of it. Either way, I am dead and many people will celebrate their taxes taking care of one less "useless eater" (as I have been called over the years). I am on thousands of taxpayer dollars in medicines alone each month. I am on a minimum of 14 different medicines, many cause drowsiness. I still have insomnia though and often can't sleep much, even with all those medicines making me feel sleepy. I still cannot safely drive while taking them. Who would hire someone with all of my medical problems and keep me? I'm in my 40s and no one has so far. I have been sick my whole life.

I already had my hearing and I am waiting to hear if I will live or die. If I lose my father will be happy that I am finally dead. He's wanted me dead since I was a child. He threatened to kill me many times. He's also encouraged me since I was little to kill myself. He is that way. He even served time in prison for trying to murder his first wife and child. He had tried to get me to move into a place he controlled in the middle of nowhere and have control over all my money. I believe he intended to kill me and keep spending the money as it was deposited into his bank account each month.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

I just read where States are cracking down in food stamp fraud big time, but that got me to thinking...could Social Security Disability fraud be an even larger dollar amount?

Perhaps.

Social Security is way too lenient.

Social Security breaks things down into three classifications:

1) those whose condition will never improve. These are permanent medical or mental health conditions for which there is no current resolution. Even so, Social Security reviews their records every 5-7 years to see if their condition has improved.

2) those whose condition may improve. These are not permanent medical or mental health conditions. There are treatments available. Social Security reviews their files every 3-5 years.

3) those whose condition is likely to improve. These are more short-term disabilities and Social Security reviews their files every 18 to 36 months.

That's a good scheme, and I don't have an issue with it.

My issue is Social Security does nothing to motivate people to improve their condition, and the result of that is malingering, which costs tax-payers $Billions.

People with medical conditions need to attend weekly treatment, or be cut-off and force to reapply and go through the entire process again.

People "hurt their back" and then spend the rest of their lives on disability lounging around until full-retirement age.

They need to be attending weekly physical therapy and occupational therapy sessions to get them back to work as soon as possible, and if that doesn't bring them to a level they can work, then they need to be re-trained to do a job they can do with their physical limitations.

Schizophrenia has no cure, but medication can often stabilize their condition to allow them to function, and they should be attending monthly group therapy sessions, or be cut-off and have to go through the whole process again.

Other mental illnesses should require weekly individual or group therapy sessions, and if they don't go, they should be cut-off and have to go through the whole process again.

Note that nearly everything is based on "self-reporting."

Self-reporting is highly subjective.

The internet has made things worse, actually, because all you have to do is google "bi-polar" and you get a list of the criteria necessary for a diagnosis of bi-polar.

Then, you go to a psychologist or psychiatrist and regurgitate the criteria you found on the internet and you get a diagnosis of bi-polar, then you get Social Security Disability.

Social Security needs to take a more active role in investigating.

Someone self-reports they're depressed, and yet they're out clubbing and partying every weekend. Well, if you can go clubbing and partying, then you can work.

[KS_Referee]

Originally Posted by yspobo

When people go out seeking to 'prove' someone is a fraud, they will do anything it takes to confirm their biases.

I am sorry for the hell you've been put through. I pray your situation gets better.