Social Security Disability Fraud

As disability advocates, we often hear complaints about Social Security disability fraud: someone complains about a neighbor on disability benefits that regularly takes out his trash or brings his groceries into his home; a man collecting Social Security disability payments that was spotted on his roof making repairs. This is supposed to be clear proof that these individuals are not, in fact, disabled.

For anyone who may be considering making a fraud report, please consider the following before doing so:

First, if you know someone is receiving Social Security disability benefits, do you know why? In other words, do you know why they were approved for disability? Chances are, you do not.

Second, do you know how their condition limits their ability to engage in daily activities? Do you know whether bringing in the groceries causes unrelenting pain for hours afterwards? Perhaps the man on the roof is in terrible pain for days after engaging in this physical activity. Most likely you do not know much about their condition and how it affects them.

Third, do you know whether or not their disabling condition is physical in nature or if the impairment is mental (psychological or psychiatric) in nature? If their impairment is mental, most of your observations of their physical activity and the suppositions that arise from them will be meaningless. How do you see someone’s disability? How does an observer know that the person on the roof isn’t receiving disability based on a mood disorder or on the basis of a hearing disorder?

Even if the man on the roof has a condition that is mainly physical in nature, that does not necessarily mean that he can’t climb a ladder to inspect something on his roof. And, of course, you will most likely not be privy to the effects endured later as a result of physical activity.

A critic may ask why a person receiving disability would even consider going up on a roof? A disability check does not go very far. In fact, living on disability benefits equates to living on very limited circumstances. For this reason, it is not very difficult to understand why a person might want to investigate something on their home’s roof before committing to an expense that could equal a week’s worth of groceries or a utility bill.

Many individuals with mental or invisible physical disabilities may still be able to engage in certain routine daily activities. Others may engage in physical activity from necessity and simply live with the pain later. Either way, your observation of this does not invalidate their state of disability and it does mean that they are receiving benefits fraudulently.