Look around you, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Official Website “one out of every six people you encounter is on some form of Social Security.” Whether it is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which is for insured workers, disabled spouses, and children disabled before age 22 of disabled, retired or deceased workers. Or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is given to people with little or no income, it is costing the United States government over $66 billion a year to fund. Furthermore, West Virginia leads the nation in the percentage of recipients on Social Security with a whopping 24%, or one out of every four people. (“Quick Facts”) The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program was created in 1972 to establish a minimum income for elderly, blind, and disabled people who were unable to work. As a Bail Enforcement Agent my job is to bail people out of jail who have been charged with a crime and are incarcerated. Almost 80% of the people I bail out of jail are receiving some form of SSI, or have an immediate family member who does. The crimes they commit range from domestic violence, breaking and entering, DUI, robbery, and illegal prescription drug distribution. Should the people who go out and commit these crimes be entitled to such generosity from our Government? Is anyone considering the people who work hard to support their families and are paying to fund these programs? The United States Government needs to implement some type of SSI reform and it starts with stricter SSI eligibility requirements and eliminating benefits for SSI recipients convicted of crimes.
Many believe that by the year 2037 SSI funding will be depleted and the people that really need these benefits will be left with nothing. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reported that in June 2012, 56 million people collected Social Security benefits. Almost 20% of those recipients were disabled workers and dependents. The CBPP also goes on to say that “without Social Security benefits, more than 40 percent of Americans aged 65 and older would have incomes below the poverty line.”
Although many people who receive Social Security Benefits certainly deserve them, such as the elderly, there are also many who do not. It’s a shame that people who live in the greatest country in the world, a country that provides limitless opportunities for success that are far and beyond any other nation in the world, rely and feel entitled to free money plus benefits from the government.
The aforementioned statistics are very disturbing. As a Bail Enforcement Agent it is never a surprise to me when I ask the defendant what they do for a living and they proudly proclaim they are on SSI. What comes next is even more disgusting when I ask them if their parents work. The answer is usually almost always the same they’re on SSI too. It amazes me that a person who’s on SSI can go out and rob someone, sell drugs, or beat their wife, but they cannot work.
On one occasion, I received a call from a lady who wanted to bail her husband out of jail for DUI, which is driving under the influence of alcohol. I asked where her husband worked and she said he’s on SSI because he has depression. I then asked her if she had any income and she said she makes $2000 a month. I asked her where she worked and she said she makes $1300 a month from SSI and her son makes $700 from SSI too because he can’t read or write. She continued on to talk about how it took her six years to get her SSI for anxiety attacks. She MAKES $2000 a month; imagine that! Isn’t it alarming that three people in the same household could get SSI for these types of issues?
Many of the defendants I bail out of jail receiving SSI are also prescribed prescription drugs such as Hydrocodone, Oxycontin, Xanax and Methadone. They are receiving these drugs at very low costs due to their free medical card. In turn, they are arrested for selling these prescription drugs. These types of prescription drugs can be sold on the streets for anywhere from $10 to $50 a pill. Jason Kane of PBS news hour reported that these particular drugs “killed more than 16,500 people in 2010.” “That’s roughly 45 deaths per day.” So not only are these SSI beneficiaries getting free money from the government, they are also making money from selling the prescription drugs they receive at discounted rates. Furthermore, they are contributing to the fatality rate caused by the alarming number of drug overdoses every year. The icing on the cake is while these recipients of SSI are incarcerated for the crimes they commit, guess who is paying for their time in jail? You guessed it we the tax payers.
Therefore we need to ask ourselves, are the people who continue to commit crimes such as robbery or selling prescription drugs, while receiving free money from the government, deserving of such benefits? Are these people being truthful about their disabilities? Or are they taking advantage of a flawed system. Urban Sorensen of Disabled World talks about “invisible injuries”, in other words people who claim to have physical injuries, but do not need the use of a walker or wheelchair to get around. Sotensek lists faking an injury as the number one fraud of disability. Doctors can’t do much to prove that the pain someone may say they have doesn’t exist.
While some may argue if you take away SSI, people who depend on it wouldn’t be able to eat, and would essentially starve. There are just too many others who are simply scamming the system. When you have people receiving free money from the government because they get depressed, have a back ache, or won’t learn to read or write, there is something wrong here that we’re just not seeing. If everyone who had back problems or suffered depression bouts decided they couldn’t work, we as a nation would suffer tremendously because our production would take a huge hit. These types of disabilities are pretty much common with anyone who has worked hard during their life. The physical and mental strain that people put themselves through to provide for themselves or their families cannot be measured.
People who are “stealing” from the government are in turn stealing from the people who work and pay into the Social Security Program. What’s sad is the people who fund the program now may not get to benefit from it in the future. Blaire Briody of The Fiscal Times writes, “The latest annual trustees report for Social Security projected that the programs trust fund will be exhausted by 2033.” “Seventy-seven million baby boomers are slated to retire over the next 20 years, with approximately 10,000 reaching retirement age every day, while 401k accounts have been drained by the recession, pension systems are strained and Social Security coffers are being drained of money.”
These are just some of the sad truths to the problem of Social Security abuse and why we need some type of Social Security Reform immediately. My proposed solution for the abuse of this program is simple and to the point! If a person who receives Social Security benefits commits crimes or abuses prescription drugs they should have their benefits terminated plain and simple. As of right now the penalties are too lenient. According to the US Social Security Administration’s official website benefits are suspended if a recipient is incarcerated for 30 days or more, after which time their benefits can be reinstated. This should be looked at more closely. These criminals should not be entitled to any additional government benefits after they are arrested and convicted of a crime. There will also need to be a better communications plan between law enforcement and the Social Security Administration to make sure these individuals benefits are terminated as soon as they are convicted of a crime.
Tougher guidelines and stricter qualifications also need to be implemented when it comes to granting individuals social security disability benefits. Too many people are receiving disability fraudulently and should be fully investigated before and while receiving such benefits. How is it that a person can sleep all day, go out and walk without the assistance of crutches or a cane, go to bars, get drunk and drive, while also being under the influence of prescription drugs, and continue to get rewarded for not working.
If we continue with the same system and no reform, in the end, it will cause millions of the deserving elderly and truly disabled people who fully depend on SSI to experience unbelievable hardships. There is really no way the government can fully monitor the millions of recipients of SSI, but we have to start somewhere. We can’t solve the problem over night, but if we start by taking away Social Security benefits from criminals and enforcing tougher guidelines for people to receive benefits, we have something to build on and are headed in the right direction. This situation with Social Security entitlements is totally out of control, the time to act is now. If we don’t millions of deserving elderly and truly disabled people will suffer if the program goes broke as some predict. The victims are going to be the people who fund the current program, a program that needs to be overhauled. Unless these people have a good retirement income or a very large savings account they will be in serious trouble with nowhere to turn for help.

Works Cited

AARP Foundation. “Social Security Quick Facts.” 2012 www.AARP.org.

Briody, Blaire. “Money in Your 50’s and 60’s, 5 reasons boomers will go bust.” The Fiscal Times 23 July 2012 http://money.msn.com/baby-boomers/5-reasons-boomers-will-go-bust-fiscaltimes.aspx Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Policy Basics: “Top Ten Facts about
Social Security.” 6 November 2012 www.cbpp.org

Kane, Jason. “Prescription Drug Abuse: CDC Answers Your Questions.”
PBS NEWSHOUR 13 May 2013 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/05/prescription-drug-abuse Sotensek, Urban “Identifying Disability Fraud, Category: Disability Benefit Cheats.” Disabled World, An independent Health and Disability News Source. November 2010, updated 15 June 2013 http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/social-security/cheats/fraud.php United States Social Security Administration’s official website. May 2013
www.ssa.gov.