NaturalNews) Proponents of the massive American welfare state insist that, without the availability of gratuitous government assistant programs, potentially millions of low-income or injured people would go hungry or end up homeless. But a recent investigation by CBS News' 60 Minutes reveals that many of the people on government assistant programs are neither impoverished nor disabled, and that the system is being fraudulently "gamed" at the taxpayers' expense.
Entitled "Disability, USA," the recent 60 Minutes segment focuses specifically on the Federal Disability Insurance Program (FDIP), a service of the Social Security Administration (SSA) that was created back in the 1950s to provide assistance to people who legitimately fell ill or became injured, and who could no longer work as a result. The program was intended to be small and limited in its scope of who would be eligible for coverage.
But today, FDIP has become something of a welfare free-for-all, with some 12 million individuals, many of whom are not actually disabled, now enrolled and receiving regular benefit checks from the government. According to 60 Minutes, the number of people on disability has increased by a dramatic 20 percent just in the last six years, which has pushed the annual budget for the program in excess of $135 billion.
So where are all these new enrollees coming from and how are they getting approved? According to the SSA, much of the growth can be attributed to aging "baby boomers" and a perpetually sour economy. But Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Subcommittee for Investigations, believes there is quite a bit more beneath the surface. Nearly 50 percent of all people on disability, according to his investigation, are most likely not even eligible.
"If the American public knew what was going on in our system, half would be outraged and the other half would apply for benefits," says Marilyn Zahm, one of the country's 1,500 disability judges that pores through backlogged disability appeals cases and determines their legitimacy. She and her colleague Randy Frye have arrived at similar conclusions as Sen. Coburn.
"In 1971, fewer than 20 percent of claimants were represented," she adds, referring to the plethora of disability lawyers these days that advertise on billboards and television, promising to get virtually anyone with an alleged injury on disability. "Now, over 80 percent of claimants are represented by attorneys or representatives."
Major firms like Binder & Binder, for instance, which last year received $70 million from the SSA disability trust fund, are notorious for essentially taking advantage of the system. Former Binder & Binder employees told 60 Minutes that the firm is nothing more than a "legal factory" that makes millions of dollars a year off taxpayers. And there are many more like it, as the SSA distributes billions of dollars annually to disability lawyers.
Others familiar with the burgeoning industry agree, including two former disability claims processors who worked at the SSA regional office in Huntington, West Virginia. Disability in this particular corner of the nation is big business and a major linchpin of the local economy. Their story is much the same as that of the former employees at Binder & Binder.
"We have a lot of people who have exhausted their unemployment checks and have moved on to Social Security disability," says Sarah Carver, as quoted by 60 Minutes. "I think you could call it a scheme. You could call it a scam. You could call it fraud. I mean, there's different definitions for it."
You can watch the roughly 15-minute 60 Minutes segment in full at the following link:
http://www.cbsnews.com.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.cbsnews.com
http://www.cbsnews.com
http://www.usatoday.com
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Hello! Due to my degenerating medical status, I don't get to this site very often.
Today, I logged-on earlier and when I saw this blog post, I wanted to comment on it. After having to do various things through the day, I now have some notes I want to comment on.
"As many as six million people on disability probably not disabled..."
"Probably not disabled" means, but on the other hand, they might be. I see this investigative work was done by CBS, part of the Bilderberg CORPORATE propaganda outlets. One reason I'm responding to this, is because all the mainstream-media are good at giving coverage of Disabled People, any time they can find a way to generate contempt for us, as a minority.
The article targets the economic waste of resources by freeloaders and loafers, which makes disabled war-veterans do without. This no doubt is a reality, but what I'm trying to explain is, that no matter what expose they are trying to do, a lot of people's minds interpret the information an entirely different way.
It just fuels all the accusations against us, that we're the problem of requiring most of the nation's health-care costs. That is sweet music to the Duty-to-Die Societies, who thrive on scaring populations that they need to legalize euthanasia.
They have their audiences scared-to-death, that disabilities, aging and end-of-life are so painful for the person and their entire family. They have persuaded their customers to believe, that only selfish scared, people would want to live until they die naturally. They have heirs who want to finish-off their parents and grandparents, because they consider dad or grandpa are selfish, to live off the retirement-savings they worked all their lives for.
Twelve years ago, when I was involved with the Terri Schiavo case, I warned everybody who used to read my stuff, that the Duty-to-Die cult will bully their laws through, until they make euthanasia the most profitable part of health-care. True to my word, the swine who get their audiences to justify killing us off, to bring down the health-care costs, are now charging higher prices to "die without dignity" at Dignitas.
They are so nice to assure the public that everywhere the Laws were passed, all the safeguards work well.--And there never has been "a slippery-slope". They never encountered a slippery-slope, because they just went off the cliff, which is evident from all the published reports. They deny everything, and lie through their asses.
One CBC radio-station running their national online talk-show blocked my phone-number, because in 2006 they planned on a 2-week Mon-Fri. call-in to discuss legalizing assisted-suicide. Through being experienced in the screening-process, the hostess put me on the next call. It took 45-seconds to say my line, until they cut me off. I gave that year's statistics from Holland.
The next caller flew-off her rocker denying my stats. The next caller was a researcher, who verified ever word of my statement, but made one correction.--It was Belgium, instead of Holland.
"According to 60 Minutes, the number of people on disability has increased by a dramatic 20 percent just in the last six years, which has pushed the annual budget for the program in excess of $135 billion...."
The drastic increase for the number of people on disability in the past six years, could be to several factors:
The Geo-Engineering Conference in 1997 pretty much escalated cloud-seeding (chemtrails), and what they are spraying up there world-wide 24/7 is a soft-kill of everybody. There are multiple times of all kinds of neuro-muscular diseases, Alzcheimers and COPD. "What in the World Are They Spraying Up There", and "Why in the World Are They Spraying" are the two movies which document everything.
"According to the SSA, much of the growth can be attributed to aging "baby boomers" and a perpetually sour economy....
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"Destroying the New World Order"
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