2.2 Million Go On Disability Since Mid-2010; Fraud Explains Falling Unemployment Rate

Click here to read an interesting article on how Social Security Disability Insurance fraud is allowing the government to claim lower unemployment rates.  Some excerpts:

• The number of workers receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) jumped 22 percent to 8.7 million in April from 7.1 million in December 2007. That helps explain as much as one quarter of the decline in the U.S. labor-force participation rate during the period, according to economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley. With a rising number of disability beneficiaries, there are both lower unemployment rates and lower participation rates.
• More than 99 percent of all SSDI beneficiaries remain in the program until retirement age, David Greenlaw, a managing director in New York at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a March research note, citing government data. The program provides an average of $1,111 in monthly income to eligible workers with a physical or mental impairment that will last at least 12 months or result in death. Costs have increased with the rolls: The program spent $132 billion last year, more than twice as much as in 2000. Unemployment insurance requires that applicants search for job opportunities, while disability insurance requires they be unable to work.
• Less-stringent screening procedures, more attractive benefits and a waning need for less-skilled workers have bolstered SSDI rolls. In addition, “difficult-to-verify disorders,” including muscle pain and mental illness, more easily qualify for SSDI under program reforms. Based on current trends, 7 percent of the nonelderly adult population could be receiving disability benefits by 2018.