SSA administers two federal programs under the Social Security Act that provide benefits to people with disabilities who are unable to work: The DI program provides cash benefits to workers with disabilities and their dependents based on their prior earnings. The SSI program provides benefits to the elderly and individuals with disabilities if they meet the statutory test of disability and have income and assets that fall below levels set by program guidelines. The DI program was established in 1956 to provide monthly cash benefits to individuals who were unable to work because of severe long-term disability. SSA pays disability benefits to eligible individuals under Title II of the Social Security Act. An individual is considered eligible for disability benefits under the Social Security Act if he or she is unable to engage in any SGA because of a medically determinable impairment that (1) can be expected to result in death or (2) has lasted (or can be expected to last) for a continuous period of at least 12 months. To be eligible for benefits, individuals with disabilities must have a specified number of recent work credits under Social Security (specifically, working 5 out of the last 10 years or 20 quarters out of 40 quarters) at the onset of medical impairment. An individual may also be able to qualify based on the work record of a deceased spouse or of parent who is deceased, retired, or considered eligible for disability benefits, meaning one disability beneficiary can generate multiple monthly disability payments. Benefits are financed by payroll taxes paid into the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund by covered workers and their employers, based on each worker’s earnings history. Individuals are engaged in SGA if they have earnings above $940 per month in calendar year 2008 or $980 per month in calendar year 2009. SSA conducts work-related continuing disability reviews (CDR) to determine if beneficiaries are working at or above the SGA level. Each beneficiary is allowed a 9-month trial work period, during which the beneficiary is permitted to earn more than the SGA level without affecting his or her eligibility for benefits. The trial work period is one of several provisions in the DI program intended to encourage beneficiaries to resume employment. Once the trial work period is completed, beneficiaries are generally ineligible for future DI benefits unless their earnings fall below the SGA level during the 36-month extended period of eligibility (EPE). Work issue CDRs are triggered by several types of events, although most are generated by SSA’s Continuing Disability Review Enforcement Operation. This process involves periodic computer matches between SSA’s administrative data and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wage data. Work CDRs can also be triggered by other events. For example, SSA requires beneficiaries to undergo periodic medical examinations to assess whether they continue to be considered eligible for benefits. During such reviews, SSA’s staff sometimes discovers evidence that a beneficiary may be working and usually forwards the case to an SSA field office or program service center for earnings/work development. Additional events that may trigger a work CDR include reports from state vocational rehabilitation agencies, reports from other federal agencies, and anonymous tips. Finally, DI beneficiaries may voluntarily report their earnings to SSA by visiting an SSA field office or calling the agency’s toll- free number. SSA had increased work-related CDRs from about 106,500 in fiscal year 2003 to about 175,600 in fiscal year 2006. However, the number of work CDRs has decreased slightly since 2006, and SSA projects that it will conduct about 174,200 work CDRs in fiscal year 2010. Created in 1972, the SSI program is a nationwide federal cash benefit program administered by SSA that provides a minimum level of income to financially needy individuals who are aged, blind, or considered eligible for benefits because of physical or mental impairments. Payments under the SSI program are paid under Title XVI of the Social Security Act and are funded from the government’s General Fund, which is financed through tax payments from the American public. Individuals are not eligible for SSI payments for any period during which they have income or resources that exceed the allowable amounts established under the Social Security Act. In addition, relevant information will be verified from independent or collateral sources to ensure that such payments are correct and are only provided to eligible individuals. SSI recipients are required to report events and changes of circumstances that may affect their eligibility and payment amounts, including changes in income, resources, and living arrangements. SSI generally reduces the monthly benefit $1 for every $2 of monthly earnings after the first $85. SSA has implemented measures to help identify SSI recipients with excess income, excess resources, or both, such as periodically conducting redeterminations to verify whether recipients are still eligible for and receiving the correct SSI payments. A redetermination is a review of a recipient’s nonmedical eligibility factors, such as income, resources, and living arrangements. There are two types of redeterminations: scheduled and unscheduled. Scheduled redeterminations are conducted periodically depending on the likelihood of payment error. Unscheduled redeterminations are conducted based on a report of change in a recipient’s circumstances or if SSA otherwise learns about a change that may affect eligibility or payment amount. SSA has deferred a significant number of SSI redeterminations since fiscal year 2003. Although SSA increased the number of SSI redeterminations in fiscal year 2009 above the 2008 level, the number of reviews remains significantly below the fiscal year 2003 level. Specifically, SSA conducted about 719,000 SSI redeterminations in fiscal year 2009, 30 percent fewer than it did in fiscal year 2003. However, if SSA completes the number of SSI redeterminations it is projecting for fiscal year 2010, it will be close to the fiscal year 2003 level. Our overall analysis found thousands of federal employees, commercial drivers, and owners of commercial vehicle companies who were receiving Social Security disability benefits during fiscal year 2008. It is impossible to determine from data mining alone the extent to which beneficiaries improperly or fraudulently received disability payments. To adequately assess an individual’s work status, a detailed evaluation of all the facts and circumstances should be conducted. This evaluation would include contacting the beneficiary and the beneficiary’s employer, obtaining corroborating evidence such as payroll data and other financial records, and evaluating the beneficiary’s daily activities. Based on this evaluation, a determination can be made if the individual is entitled to continue to receive SSA disability payments or have such payments suspended. As such, our analysis provides an indicator of potentially improper or fraudulent activity related to federal employees, commercial drivers, and owners of commercial vehicle companies receiving SSA disability payments. Our case studies, discussed later, confirmed some examples in which individuals received SSA disability payments that they were not entitled to receive. Our analysis of federal civilian salary data and SSA disability data found that about 7,000 individuals at selected agencies had been wage-earning employees for the federal government while receiving SSA disability benefits during fiscal year 2008. The exact number of individuals who may be improperly or fraudulently receiving SSA disability payments cannot be determined without detailed case investigations. Our analysis of federal salary data from October 2006 through December 2008 found that about 1,500 federal employees’ records indicate that they may be improperly receiving payments. The individuals were identified using the following criteria: (1) DI beneficiaries who received more than 12 months of federal salary payments above the maximum SSA earnings threshold for the DI program (e.g., $940 per month for nonblind DI beneficiaries during calendar year 2008) after the start date of their disabilities or (2) SSI recipients who received more than 2 months of federal salary above the maximum SSA earnings threshold for the SSI program after the start date of their disabilities. Based on their SSA benefit amounts, we estimate that these approximately 1,500 federal employees received about $1.7 million of payments monthly. Table 1 summarizes the types of SSA disability benefits for these 1,500 federal employees who are receiving disability benefits. Figure 1 shows that 379 of the approximately 1,500 federal employees were U.S. Postal Service workers and 241 were DOD civilian employees. The remainder was other federal civilian employees. According to SSA officials, SSA currently does not obtain payroll records from the federal government to identify SSA disability beneficiaries or recipients who are currently working. SSA officials stated that they have not conducted a review to determine the feasibility of conducting such a match. However, SSA acknowledged that these payroll records may be helpful in more quickly identifying individuals who are working so that work CDRs could be performed to evaluate whether those individuals should have their disability payments suspended. Our analysis of data from DOT on commercial drivers and from SSA on disability beneficiaries found that about 600,000 individuals had been issued CDLs and were receiving full Social Security disability benefits. The actual number of SSA disability beneficiaries with active CDLs cannot be determined for two reasons. First, states maintain the current status of CDLs, not DOT. Second, possession of a CDL does not necessarily indicate that the individual returned to work. Because federal regulations require interstate commercial drivers to be examined and certified by a licensed medical examiner to be able to physically drive a commercial vehicle once every 2 years, we selected a nonrepresentative selection of 12 states to determine how many SSA disability beneficiaries had CDLs issued after their disabilities were determined by SSA. Of the 600,000 CDL holders receiving Social Security disability benefits, about 144,000 of these individuals were from our 12 selected states. As figure 2 shows, about 62,000 of these 144,000 individuals, or about 43 percent, had CDLs that were issued after SSA determined that the individuals met the federal requirements for full disability benefits. As a result, we consider the issuance of CDLs to be an indication that these individuals may no longer may no longer have serious medical conditions and may have returned to work. have serious medical conditions and may have returned to work.