Posted on 02/22/2011 3:49:30 PM PST by KeyLargo
Federal fraud: Healthy workers took disability
Investigation finds $25 billion misspent on payments from 2005 to 2009; thousands of federal workers received questionable checks
February 18, 2011
By Sharyl Attkisson
* Play CBS Video Video Fighting federal disability fraud
According to government estimates, fraud and improper payments ate up $25 billion dollars in federal disability payments from 2005-2009. Sharyl Attkisson reports on the double-dipping that's slipping through the cracks.
* 111 Charged in Medicare Scams Worth $225M * Taxpayer Funds Paid for Bonuses, Casino Trips
(CBSNews)
You have no doubt noticed it when you get your paycheck, the deduction for Social Security taxes.
Some of the money goes to pay workers when they become disabled, meaning they are unable to work, but some are continuing to collect disability payments even after they've returned to work.
WASHINGTON - It's always good to see federal employees hard at work. That is, unless they're collecting a check for being totally disabled at the same time. That's fraud. In one case, the double-dipper is a Transportation Security Administration screener in California, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
Federal disability -- about $170 billion per year -- is intended for those with medical conditions so severe they can't work at any job. Today, so many people claim to fit that definition, 17.9 million people are getting checks.
"I will just tell you I'm biased when we have one in 20 people in this country on disability," Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said during a congressional hearing last year. "I don't believe it. As a practicing physician in a poor area of the country with lotsa problems I don't buy it."
Not exactly unexpected.
and living large in a house listed for $1.8 million....That taxpayers most likely are paying for because she defaulted.
This is in that same category as the prison inmates (incarcerated all year) who got the $7500 electric vehicle tax credit.
This looks like a job for Captain Obvious....
Medicare and Medicaid fraud is estimated to be $100 BILLION per year.
Any federal agency is open to fraud. They’re not accountable for the money they extract through taxation.
Run out of money? Just raise taxes.
Well, Senator Coburn, what are you going to do about it?
he laughs about it every time he tells the story of the doctors calling him disabled.
The man is about 6'10” and as strong as an ox and could probably lift the back end of a small car off the ground by himself. He works outside on his ranch all day every day and never gets tired. Has no major illnesses... and yet somehow someway the doctors have classified him as 100% disabled, so he gets a huge disability check.
and his ethics stink like an ox’s manure.
He is not asking them to label him disabled... he is arguing with them that he is not!
If he never signs the checks either, then he’s doing the right thing. He ought to blow a big, loud whistle. It’s almost as if the doctors themselves are bucking for a piece of the pie, get my drift.
By the way I’d be REAL curious... charts of WHAT?
The fact that he brags about being in great health and doctors "forcing" more disability on him is a load of crap.
He could stop those checks in a month. But he won't.
it’s a military thing through the VA
It's been a while since I have heard the story. By the way the mans a multimillionaire with gas wells all over his property, so he doesn't need the money. It just some funny way the VA has of determining disability %
He could stop the payments/increase in payments any time he wants.
He chooses not to.
Should be an easy crime to solve.
1) If person is accepting federal disability checks go to line 2.
2) Check to see if there are W-2’s from other employers. If there are, go to to line 3.
3) Stop sending disability checks.
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