Social Security Disability Programs

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a social insurance program that provides benefits to insured workers under the full retirement age who meet the statutory test of disability and to their eligible dependents. Unlike some other federal programs, benefit payments and administrative costs associated with the SSDI program are paid not out of the General Fund but from a dedicated Federal Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Fund in the U.S. Treasury. This book provides an overview of the DI trust fund and examines potential solutions to improve the DI trust fund's solvency in the short term. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has policies and procedures in place for detecting and preventing fraud with regard to disability benefit claims. This book reviews how well SSA's policies and procedures are designed and implemented to detect and prevent physician-assisted fraud; and the steps SSA is taking to improve its ability to prevent physician-assisted fraud.