U.S. Social Security Program: Overpayments and Unreasonable Granting of Benefits

Social security in the U.S. is very extensive involving the promotion of social welfare among citizens of the nation. The U.S. social security is directly funded by dedicated payroll taxes which in turn provide insurance to most individuals. The four major focus of the program is to provide assistance and benefits for survivorship, disability, retirement and death. These benefits have ensured that retirees, veterans and old people will get the necessary financial and medical support to live on with their lives.

The Social Security network is considered the largest social insurance program in the U.S. Because of the large amount of money involved, there have been numerous cases of misappropriation of funds that were reported. According to the Government Accountability Office which functions as a government watchdog, there are about 1,500 federal employees who may have received benefits that were not actually intended to be given to them.

A study found numerous cases where an employee received benefits despite earning well above the income cap. One cases indicated that a Transportation Security Administration screener was given $108,000 and is considered overpaid. It has been estimated that over 1,500 federal employees, 25% of them were employees of the U.S postal service and about 16% were defense department civilians, actually earned over $1.7 million a month. There may in fact be fraud going on considering degree of overpayments done in this program.

Another cases mentioned a Postal Service Worker working in Michigan who received a whopping $45,000 paycheck. That worker was granted disability benefits for having “mood and personality disorder” in 2004 but returned a year later to work. The payments continued until early 2007 and went back again in 2008. A repayment of $37,000 was again reported in 2008. Despite already receiving overpriced salaries and benefits, most of these employees also benefit from the economic stimulus payment amounting $250 each worker. Talk about how lucky these workers are receiving so much money without being held accountable.

There are more inconsistencies and frauds found in the social security program which the report has concluded. It is very sad to know that most of the hard-earned taxpayer’s money are just going to the pockets of federal employees who don’t even deserve it. The government should implement corrective measures to check the eligibility of every individual to various benefits offered by the social security program. Better accountability and transparency should also be promoted in the government to ensure that it is paying every federal employee correctly and reasonably. In these times of recession and crisis, we can’t afford wasting every bit of taxpayer’s money. The funds should instead be spent for various projects which will generate more jobs and eventually steer the economy to progress.