The Oregonian Misses the Mark on Social Security Disability
The Oregonian recently issued an editorial urging the Social Security Administration to focus more on reviewing existing disability claimants for fraud and abuse, mainly because it saves the agency a lot of money. Generally, I agree, but first things first.
As I have described in a recent post, there is a huge backlog at Social Security, with people waiting over two years to get a hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge. One of the hardest things that I have to do is tell some homeless person with serious health problems that they are going to have to wait another year before they even get a hearing. I had one case where my client was living in the Oregon Coast Range in an unheated trailer with no plumbing or electricity, and the Social Security Judge found that this person was not suffering enough to get a hearing scheduled on an expedited basis. Maybe there are others worse off, and if so, it only underscores the gravity of the problem.
We have to root out fraud, and review cases, but to punish the worthy even more so we can catch the fraudulent is simply inhumane. Apparently, the disability review program is profitable. This means that for every buck the agency puts out to stamp out fraud, it saves almost $12.00. That sounds like a good investment for Congress, and not a bailout.
