**GAO-10-444**                      Published: Jun 25, 2010. Publicly Released: Aug 04, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two of the nation's largest cash benefits programs for people with disabilities: the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program, which provides benefits to workers with disabilities and their family members, and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which provides income for individuals with disabilities who have limited income and resources. In 2008, SSA provided about $142 billion in financial benefits for these two programs. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the federal government also paid $250 to each SSA recipient, such as DI beneficiaries, SSI recipients, and old-age retirement beneficiaries. GAO was asked to (1) determine whether federal employees and commercial drivers and company owners may be improperly receiving disability benefits and (2) develop case study examples of individuals who fraudulently and/or improperly receive these benefits. To do this, GAO compared DI and SSI benefit data to civilian payroll records of certain federal agencies and carrier/driver records from the Department of Transportation (DOT) and 12 selected states. GAO also interviewed SSA disability beneficiaries and recipients.

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Sarah Kaczmarek
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## Topics

Worker and Family Assistance

Aid for the disabledBeneficiariesDisability benefitsDisability insuranceEligibility determinationsErroneous paymentsFederal employee disability programsFederal employeesFederal social security programsFraudOverpaymentsPeople with disabilitiesQuestionable paymentsSocial security benefitsSupplemental security income

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Federal Employees and Transportation Drivers and Owners Who Fraudulently and/or Improperly Received SSA Disability (reissued January 24, 2011)Friday, June 25, 2010Receive GAO Updates
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