[nfbmi-talk] Senator Says Most People On Disability Don't Deserve It

[Terry D. Eagle]

Senator Says Most People On Disability Don't Deserve It

By  Bryce Covert
Posted on January 14, 2015 at 3:35 pm Updated: January 14, 2015 at 4:42 pm

Senator Says Most People On Disability Don't Deserve It"

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

 

CREDIT: AP Photo / Charlie Neibergall

 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is claiming that there is widespread fraud in the
country's disability system because most people who get benefits merely
suffer from

anxiety or sore backs.

 

At a meeting with legislative leaders in Manchester, NH on Wednesday, caught
on tape by American Bridge, Paul told the room:

Block quote start

 

The thing is that all of these programs, there's always somebody who's
deserving, everybody in this room knows somebody who's gaming the system. I
tell

people that if you look like me and you hop out of your truck, you shouldn't
be getting a disability check. Over half the people on disability are either

anxious or their back hurts. Join the club. Who doesn't get up a little
anxious for work every day and their back hurts? Everyone over 40 has a back
pain.

Block quote end

 

Watch:

 

Senator Rand Paul - NH Legislative Leaders Breakfast - 1-14-15 - YouTube
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Senator Rand Paul - NH Legislative Leaders Breakfast - 1-14-15 - YouTube

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The disability insurance program, which is part of Social Security, has come
under scrutiny after

two

media reports

last year that focused on rising enrollment and implied that it was at least
partly due to fraud. But the reality is different: fraud in disability
programs

is estimated to amount to

less than 1 percent

and is extremely rare, as the agency's watchdog

has found.

Its inaccurate payments rate is also

less than 1 percent,

compared to about 8 percent for Medicaid and Medicare.

 

The benefits are also very hard to come by.

Fewer than four in ten

applications are approved even after all stages of appeal. Medical evidence
from multiple medical professionals is required in most cases to determine
eligibility,

which means showing that an applicant suffers from a "severe, medically
determinable physical or mental impairment that is expected to last 12
months or

result in death." The severity of the disabilities of those who get benefits
is underscored by the fact that

one in five men and nearly one in six women

die within five years of being approved.

 

Once on the rolls, payments are far from cushy: they average

$1,130 a month,

just over the federal poverty line for a single person, and usually replace
less than half of someone's previous earnings. Very few beneficiaries are
able

to work and supplement that income: less than 17 percent worked at some
point during the year in 2007, but less than 3 percent of those people made
more

than $10,000 annually.

 

But Republicans still have the program in their sights. They kicked off the
new Congress with

a measure that bans transferring funds

between disability insurance and Social Security's retirement finances. The
managers of both programs have often borrowed from one to fund the other,
but

now will no longer be able to do so. The disability program is strained from
rising enrollment - mostly due to

expected demographic changes,

not the recession - which could end up forcing a nearly 20 percent in
disability payments.

 

 

Source to activate links:

 

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/01/14/3611776/rand-paul-disability/