Social Security Disability: $21 billion in false claims handed out annually

Social Security experts testified Thursday that a recent surge in falsely awarded disability benefits threatens the viability of a program whose trust fund will be exhausted by 2016. 

Administrative law judges, who grant the benefits in some cases, told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that they are often pressured by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to quickly resolve the disability cases and reduce a massive backlog. 

More than 63,000 people waited 1,000 days or more for a decision in 2007.

Judge J.E. Sullivan said administrators advised her to not spend more than 20 minutes reviewing medical evidence and no more than one hour on any case despite the hundreds of medical records that often accompany the case file. 

The case has typically already been reviewed twice by state agencies before it reaches the judge, but attorneys will also submit hundreds of pages of documents hours before the hearing, she said.

“There’s tremendous pressure on judges to not spend time on adjudication in order to meet all the goals,” she said. 

The SSA distributed $175 billion in disability benefits to about 15 million recipients in 2011, according to a report for the Hofstra Law Review by Drew Swank, another administrative law judge. 

He testified that about 15 percent, or $21 billion, of those benefits are improperly awarded each year to persons who are not disabled, placing a significant financial strain on a program whose coffers will be depleted in three years.

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