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Sunday, April 07, 2013

Is Disability The New Welfare?

It asked everyone receiving an “incapacity benefit” — a disability program slowly being phased out under new reforms — to submit to a medical test to confirm they were too disabled to work. A third of recipients (878,000 people) didn’t even bother and dropped out of the program rather than be examined. Of those tested, more than half (55 percent) were found fit for work, and a quarter were found fit for some work.

But that’s Britain, where there’s a long tradition of gaming the dole. Americans would never think of taking advantage of the taxpayers or misleading the government. Well, except for the couple dozen people who have pleaded guilty to scamming the Long Island Rail Road’s federal disability system in a $1 billion fraud scheme. A billion bucks would pay for a lot of White House tours.

Though hardly isolated, the LIRR scandal is an obvious black-and-white case of criminality. The real problem resides in a grayer area.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't take a genius to see this. Look at all the huge people on those motorized shopping carts at Walmart. Damn near get run over on every isle. The only thing I see wrong with them is laziness. Once they leave the store and get to their car they start jumping around like hip hop artists.

JT on Welfare said...

Hey i am a legitimate person injured fro work, Not disabled because i am FAT.

Anonymous said...

Sorry JT but I'm sure your weight contributed to your accident and if you weren't so lazy you could get better and off of the citizens payroll.

Anonymous said...

Why can parents of kids diagnosed with ADHD receive disability benefits? What does the child's diagnosis have to do with the parents' ability to work??

Anonymous said...

Sure is I see people on disability all the time that are able to work Its a shame when you can just be lazy and get a check!