Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 17, 1993 TAG: 9308170098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Federal auditors say failing to review enough cases in 1990-93 could cost $1.4 billion in unnecessary payments through 1997.
At the same time, tens of thousands of ill or injured workers must wait months to be declared eligible for disability benefits. Some have died before their cases could be decided.
"There'd be more room on the train if the nonpaying passengers were asked to step off," said Rep. Andy Jacobs, D-Ind., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security.
Both problems underscore growing financial and administrative troubles in one of the government's biggest disability programs. Together, they're straining an agency trying to serve record numbers of Americans seeking benefits.
Although eligibility requirements for Social Security disability benefits are quite stringent and require people to be totally disabled, some of those people do recover - and often that's missed by the government.
A recent study by the General Accounting Office found that at least 30,000 people may now be collecting disability benefits that they no longer deserve because their health has improved.
Social Security isn't finding them because it has shifted its resources into processing the backlogs of disability applications and away from conducting periodic reviews of recipients.
"People are dying waiting for the benefits they're entitled to," said Rep. William Hughes, D-N.J. "At the same time, we're paying for tens of thousands of people who are no longer entitled to receive disability benefits."
The agency is supposed to conduct 300,000 to 500,000 reviews each year. It did 58,430 last year. It expects to do about 70,000 in 1993, although only 20,000 had been finished by the end of May.
Five or six people are taken off the rolls for every 100 reviews.
GAO estimates that it would have cost Social Security about $1.1 billion to review the required number of cases in 1990-93. But by doing so the agency would have saved $2.5 billion in benefits to ineligible recipients through 1997.
In an effort to narrow the field of candidates for review, Social Security has begun mailing questionnaires that ask recipients about their health and work status.
The questionnaire warns recipients that a false statement is a federal crime. Jacobs is, nevertheless, skeptical that people will be candid about their conditions.
GAO also said that while the questionnaire is encouraging, it is concerned that Social Security has too few reviews planned in 1993 and over the next several years.
Acting Social Security Commissioner Lawrence Thompson said the administration is considering legislation that would allow Social Security to spend more to conduct more reviews. Any savings would be reinvested in the program.
An estimated 3.5 million disabled workers, and their 1.4 million dependents, will collect $30 billion in Social Security disability insurance benefits this year. The average monthly benefit is $609.
An additional 4.1 million disabled persons will collect $15 billion in disability benefits under the Supplemental Security Income program for low-income children and adults who don't have a work history to qualify for Social Security coverage. The average monthly benefit is $334.
by CNB