Saturday, June 13, 2015

Slow Saturday Special: Social Security Overpaid Disabled

And now they want the money back:

"Social Security overpaid by $17b, report says" Associated Press  June 06, 2015

WASHINGTON — Social Security overpaid disability beneficiaries by nearly $17 billion over the past decade, a government watchdog said Friday, raising alarms about the massive program as it nears the brink of insolvency.

Many payments went to people who earned too much money to qualify for benefits or to those no longer disabled. Payments also went to people who had died or were in prison.

In all, nearly half of the 9 million people receiving disability payments were overpaid, according to the results of a 10-year study by the Social Security Administration’s inspector general.

Social Security was able to recoup about $8.1 billion, but it often took years to get the money back, the study said.

‘‘Every dollar misallocated is a dollar lost for those who truly need it most,’’ said Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. ‘‘Today’s report shows the inability of the Social Security Administration to properly safeguard payments, which has no doubt contributed to speeding the fund toward exhaustion.’’ 

The rank-rot corruption infests every edifice of AmeriKan institutions, and here is another one.

The trust fund that supports Social Security’s disability program is projected to run out of money late next year, triggering automatic benefit cuts, unless Congress acts. The looming deadline has lawmakers feuding over a solution that may have to come in the heat of a presidential election.

It's a backdoor way of applying additional austerity on you while the war machine, Wall Street, and Israel gobbled up all the tax loot.

A spokesman for the Social Security Administration said the agency has a high accuracy rate for its payments and a comprehensive debt collection program for overpayments.

Yeah, you guys are doing a great job.

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The feeling is that this is a story put out there to "explain" why the Social Security Trust Fund is empty, having been looted by the stewards of government long ago.