90 in Georgia Family Tied to Disability Benefits Abuse

Ninety members of a single Georgia family collected more than $1 million in federal disability benefits before the government discovered that they did not qualify.

The inspector general for the Social Security Administration put part of the blame on a local doctor, who, he said, may have been approving dubious disability claims, and on the administration for using him.

Several members of the Georgia family, which was not identified, faked ailments when their cases were reviewed, the inspector general found. But investigators could not prove that they lied to get on the rolls in the first place, and they declined to prosecute. The Georgia family consisted of 300 people from four generations, including 181 collecting Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.

While unusually large, this family’s case was not an isolated instance, the inspector general said, citing interviews with Social Security officials from several states. “These representatives cited many instances where similar abuses were occurring nationwide,” the report said.

But Susan Daniels, Social Security’s associate commissioner for disability, countered that this sort of abuse is rare.

“I think this is a fairly isolated example of a family who may have been in cahoots with an unethical health care provider,” Daniels said Tuesday, adding that some families may have many disabled members because of genetic disposition to certain diseases.

Still, she was dismayed by the report. “It makes all the others guilty by association,” she said. “It really bothers me that families that have legitimate claims will be thought to be fraudulent.”

Allegations of fraud in the Supplemental Security Income program prodded Congress to tighten eligibility for children and immigrants in the 1996 welfare overhaul.

And officials have spent the last several months responding to charges that they were cutting off too many children. After a review, newly installed Commissioner Kenneth S. Apfel concluded that many mistakes were made.

In its official response to the inspector general, Social Security promised to give its workers better instruction manuals and training.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), whose Aging Committee oversees Social Security, promised Tuesday to make sure those materials are delivered.

“Too often people have lied to get benefits,” he said.