Never underestimate the lure of getting money without having to work for it. From inherent laziness to multi-generational welfare dependents to the working stiff who gets laid off one too many times and decides “Screw it, I’ll just collect disability and play video games,” there’s no shortage of people willing to take money from the government without working for a living.
And Democrats will always be there to help them do just that. In this case, activist judges are there to rubberstamp claims.
Dozens of administrative law judges grant disability payments to almost everyone who appears before them, overriding Social Security staff who determined the people were not entitled to payments, a Daily Wire analysis found.
One of the Social Security Administration’s “regional chief administrative law judges,” Jennifer M. Horne, who leads the San Francisco hearing office, ruled in every case she heard last year that the claimant should be granted disability payments, even though in each case, two previous examinations had found the claimant should be denied. Ronald Herman, hearing cases outside of Detroit, green lit payments in 95% of the 1,268 cases he heard. Jan Leventer, hearing cases in Queens and Detroit, approved 94% of 2,159 cases, potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Such rulings have steered billions of dollars in payments to people who may not deserve them, adding to the impression that disability is sometimes abused as a shadow welfare program. Targeting abuse in Social Security’s disability program, which has a history of fraud, provides an opportunity for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut waste from the “non-discretionary” funding that comprises the bulk of the federal budget.
“It’s all a political bent,” a lawyer who represents disability-seekers at the hearings, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Wire. “If [the judge is] a person that says ‘this is a social contract that we make with people,’ if [the claimant says] they’re disabled, then they are. If they’re a person who believes everyone’s a liar and a cheat, then it’s single digits.”
“I don’t think there’s any real lawyering to it. The game is to get as many hearings as I can because 50% are getting approved no matter what if I just show up,” he added. “I’ve had people with cancer not get approved, and people with skin rashes get approved. I can’t predict it anymore.”
One Washington, D.C.-area administrative law judge, who is a white Bernie Sanders supporter, was overheard complaining that many of his peers viewed their job as a way to steer government checks to minorities, regardless of the facts.
Social Security staff determine whether someone is entitled to disability payments, and claimants can appeal to staff for a “redetermination” if they are rejected. If that panel also concludes that they are not disabled, they can appeal again to an administrative law judge.
Outcomes in those proceedings largely depend on which judge the applicant gets. Even though one might assume that they would defer to the judgement of Social Security experts, 85 judges overturned Social Security rulings that a person was not disabled more than 80% of the time.
Far fewer judges erred on the side of stinginess. Only 16 judges upheld the staff’s determination more than 80% of the time, according to 2024 data. In all, administrative law judges heard 2.2 million disability cases in 2024, and overturned the non-disabled ruling in 58% of them. In October, 26 administrative law judges, hearing 197 cases between them, ruled favorably to the disability-seeker in every single case.
Democrats will never stop finding reasons to take taxpayer money to give it to “the poor,” “the disadvantaged,” “migrants,” or any other designated victim group, either from their desire to charge the vigorish on robbing Peter to pay Paul, or in order to actively bankrupt America to “fight capitalism.”
Tags: Democrats, fraud, Jan Leventer, Jennifer M. Horne, Social Justice Warriors, Social Security, Welfare State
To qualify for disability the following criteria are applied. Beneficiary cannot carry out these daily tasks:
go to school or work without assistance,
climb a few steps
walk at a reasonable pace for a short distance
carry out normal activities like shopping
walk on rough services
use standard public transportation
prepare a simple meal and feed oneself
Now, one can represent oneself as being disabled, or have a lawyer undertake the the task for you but how are the criteria applied? Are the applicants disability tested? E.g., are the blind complete without sight or are they merely handicapped by poor vision? Are the crippled missing a limb that could be rehabilitated by a prosthesis?
My grade school chum Jimmy worked for the FBI until one day he concluded that the glass ceiling that kept white, heterosexual males from being promoted was intolerable to him. So he left and started his own agency.
One of his most lucrative gigs was observing insurance claimants who had received a substantial settlement for an injury that left them unable to work.
Billy Bob occasionally was sufficiently indiscreet about his injuries so that he would accept auto repair jobs that entailed his getting under the car that was jacked up in his driveway and performing services such as replacement of a defective transmission.
Jimmy would take photographs with his concealed camera and submit the evidence to the insurance company that had hired him. Outcome:insurance beneficiary is denied further coverage and prosecuted for insurance fraud.
A program needs to be in place to ensure that Social Security beneficiaries are not engaged in fraud and that a finding of fraud exposes them to criminal prosecution and complete loss of benefits.
The fix is fairly straightforward but the political will to institute it may not be.
And yet, the Left will fight tooth and nail to stop any meaningful reform. So what happens when the country defaults because nobody will loan us money? Then the social safety net disappears for everyone. Why not reform it now to try to preserve it for those who truly need it like quadriplegics, severely autistic people, etc. instead of shoveling it out to the lazy?
Also, if there were a $1000 reward for turning in fraudsters, I’d imagine we could clean up the disability rolls pretty quickly as there are enough of them out there for someone to make a good living turning them in. It’s also ridiculous we have to pay disability for purely self-induced conditions. I have an uncle who is on full disability for cirrhosis (from being an alcoholic) and emphysema (life long smoker and MJ user)
[…] BITES MAN: Democrats Deploy Disability Dodge. “Dozens of administrative law judges grant disability payments to almost everyone who appears […]
The quoted article correctly points out that there is no consistency in the rulings of the ALJs, and that some of them are so one-sided in favor of claimants that their fidelity to the law must be questioned.
However, I know from experience as a lawyer (and not one representing claimants) that it is erroneous to suggest that the SSA staff who make determinations are “experts” or that they are neutral and objective in their approach to examining applications. Many people with true disabilities are rejected by the SSA staff, and rejected more than once.
I retired 4 years ago and had to go to my local Social Security office since I had to fight tp prevent them taking back the first couple of SS payments made after I retired (they were wrong, but a story for another time). What struck me every time I went to that office was that the majority of the people waiting to be “served” were less than 50 years old. In other words, they were all Supplemental Security Income (SSI) “customers”. No wonder Social Security is going broke.