COTTonLINE has written before about the soaring numbers of people on Social Security disability payments, see here, here, here, here, and here. All along, there has been the suspicion that some substantial number of those claims were, if not fraudulent, at least of questionable merit.
Therefore it was no surprise to see an Associated Press article via Yahoo News which reports the Social Security Administrations Inspector General will soon issue a report finding a minority of Administrative Law Judges were accepting claims that were wrong, or at best, questionable.
If you read farther into the article you learn (a) rejecting a claim requires much more paperwork and documentation than approving it and (b) judges are expected to decide some 500 claims a year, each of which has a case file averaging up to 500 pages. N.B., 500 sheets = a ream.
Do the math, that is 2 cases/day. Imagine trying to understand and evaluate two 500 page files per day, plus hold hearings on same, every day for 50 weeks a year. The temptation to cut corners, to say "yes" and save time documenting your qualms and quibbles must be nearly overwhelming.
And the IG only looked at the work of the ALJs who had "abnormally high" approval rates. Imagine what they'd find if they audited a real cross section of all 1100 Administrative Law Judges. N.B., the money given away to undeserving recipients came out of our pockets.
