Hundreds of judges across the country with abnormally high approval rates for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) payments awarded about $100 billion in lifetime benefits between 2005 and 2012, raising further questions about a program that could be insolvent in just three years.
An analysis by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that judges with approval rates higher than 80 percent, about 30 percent of all administrative law judges (ALJs) nationwide in past years, awarded billions of dollars in benefits in almost 140,000 cases as recently as 2009. The number of awards has since declined to about 46,000 last year.
“Not all of those are incorrect but there are significant amounts,” said Rep. James Lankford (R., Okla.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements, at a hearing Tuesday, adding that even small amounts of improper payments can imperil the program for the truly disabled.
“We cannot ignore glaring issues that are driving this program into insolvency,” he said.
Almost 11 million disabled workers, spouses, and children receive SSDI benefits—a 45 percent increase from a decade ago—with average monthly payments of $1,130 for disabled workers and $300,000 total over their lifetimes. Social Security estimated in 2009 that less than 1 percent of more than 560,000 beneficiaries reviewed would eventually leave the system because of improved health, suggesting that many recipients stay on the program for life once they start collecting benefits.
