Disability

Eugene

(62,657 posts) Mon Mar 11, 2019, 12:12 AM Mar 2019

On Disability and on Facebook? Uncle Sam Wants to Watch What You Post

Source: New York Times

On Disability and on Facebook? Uncle Sam Wants to Watch What You Post

By Robert Pear
March 10, 2019

WASHINGTON — If you’re on federal disability payments and on social media, be careful what you post. Uncle Sam wants to watch.

The Trump administration has been quietly working on a proposal to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to help identify people who claim Social Security disability benefits without actually being disabled. If, for example, a person claimed benefits because of a back injury but was shown playing golf in a photograph posted on Facebook, that could be used as evidence that the injury was not disabling.

“There is a little bitty chance that Social Security may be snooping on your Facebook or your Twitter account,” Robert A. Crowe, a lawyer from St. Louis who has represented Social Security disability claimants for more than 40 years, said he cautioned new clients. “You don’t want anything on there that shows you out playing Frisbee.”

In its budget request to Congress last year, Social Security said it would study whether to expand the use of social media networks in disability determinations as a way to “increase program integrity and expedite the identification of fraud.”

-snip-

5 replies

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Highlight:

On Disability and on Facebook? Uncle Sam Wants to Watch What You Post (Original Post) Eugene Mar 2019 OP

Epitome of a slippery slope ... mr_lebowski Mar 2019 #1

This will cost how much? Save how much? I suspect that a serious... TreasonousBastard Mar 2019 #2

Doesn't surprise me at all Sherman A1 Mar 2019 #3

I find that an invasion of privacy. I have no problem doc03 Mar 2019 #4

Would probably only catch low hanging fruit Wrz Nov 2019 #5

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)

1. Epitome of a slippery slope ...

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Mon Mar 11, 2019, 01:17 AM

Mar 2019

Does Not Want!

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)

2. This will cost how much? Save how much? I suspect that a serious...

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Mon Mar 11, 2019, 01:37 AM

Mar 2019

cost benefit analysis would show this to be wasted effort. In controlling the population, however, it's a winner.

Where there is money, there is fraud. Just gonna happen, and everyone knows the system is being scammed. The only questions are just how much is it being scammed and what will it take to reduce it.

I suspect it's down to a minimum by now, and any further attempts are just pecksniffian busybodies making their day.

Sherman A1

(38,958 posts)

3. Doesn't surprise me at all

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Mon Mar 11, 2019, 05:05 AM

Mar 2019

I find it really lousy, but folks need to use their common sense about social media.

doc03

(36,705 posts)

4. I find that an invasion of privacy. I have no problem

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Mon Mar 11, 2019, 07:08 AM

Mar 2019

with trying to catch freeloaders it hurts people that really need help. There are two people I see every day at the gym that have disabilities for their back. One guy skips rope from one end of the gym to the other for probably an hour every morning along with lifting weights and Zumba.
I have had back problems myself believe me if they had a bad back they wouldn't be doing that.

Wrz

(35 posts)

5. Would probably only catch low hanging fruit

Reply to Eugene (Original post)

Thu Nov 21, 2019, 06:22 PM

Nov 2019

The smart ones would just use an alias or do something like replace the vowels in their name with Xs and for good measure mark all posts like on Facebook as friends only.

It took me 3 years before I got a hearing before an administrative law judge to get approved for SSI. I don't even venture outside except to go to doctor's appointments and when I do I have to lean on a walker. Someone else picks up my groceries for me - I can't even manage that myself because I can't be on my feet too long.

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