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August 15, 2000
Social Security disability payments flowing to the able-bodied
New study chronicles 43 cases of confirmed abuse; calls them "tip of the iceberg"
WASHINGTON-The federal government is giving Social Security disability payments to individuals who are simultaneously claiming to be fully capable of working and too disabled to hold a job, according to a Cato Institute study released today.
To qualify for disability payments under Social Security, a person needs to be incapable of performing any meaningful work in the national economy. But James M. Taylor, managing editor of Accommodating Disabilities Business Management Guide and author of the Cato study, found 43 cases in which people who qualified for disability benefits were simultaneously filing lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act-even though the rationale for ADA suits is that individuals are being discriminated against for jobs they are clearly capable of performing. Taylor asks, "How can a person be simultaneously able and unable to work?"
Some of the 43 examples Taylor discovered are jaw-dropping: The doctor collecting more than $100,000 a year from Social Security because he doesn't want to treat patients, preferring administrative work; the bus driver who was fired for sleeping on the job, sued under ADA because she had a bruised knee and easily treatable hypertension, and yet qualified for benefits; the bank worker who won benefits in part because his panic attacks sapped his "sexual prowess."
The 43 cases cited "do not even come close to capturing the mass of hidden abuses that occur within the system," Taylor says. About the only time it comes to light that an able-bodied worker is receiving disability benefits is when that worker simultaneously sues under the ADA, but such information almost never becomes public, Taylor says. He thinks the fraud is much more widespread, noting that the nation's population grew by only 7 percent between 1991 and 1998 while the number of people receiving Social Security disability payments surged by 47 percent.
Still, Taylor is careful not to lay too much blame at the feet of people abusing the system, reserving his harshest criticism for the Social Security Administration, which refuses to crack down on known fraud. "Whether motivated by misguided altruism, political expediency, or bureaucratic indifference, SSA flagrantly disregards both the language and the spirit of the Social Security Disability Insurance program," he says.
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Facilitating Fraud:
How SSDI Gives Benefits to the Able Bodied
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