But it’s just a technical term and in fact, it’s something that’s can go beyond your imagination. Today, in this post, I’ll discuss the real work of Program Integrity.
What is Program Integrity?
No, Program Integrity isn’t involved in sending the right payment to the right people with the right amount. No, it doesn’t help working families get the benefits they deserve. By definition, Program Integrity activities are here to make sure Federal & State taxpayer dollars are spent for delivering quality, necessary care and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse from taking place. But the reality is far from this. Today, Program Integrity is nothing but an insider code for saving money. The money isn’t just saved by preventing fraud & abuse but by harassing the innocent citizens who haven’t done anything wrong. People with some serious disabilities must prove over & over again that they’re unable to support themselves financially. SSA always claims to go after only those people who were getting benefits wrongly. But the thing is, why does this keep on happening? It’s because of the mistakes they keep on doing. Then they don’t care if the repercussions are faced by homeless citizens. Citizens who: ✅Can only speak their native language. ✅Face intellectual challenges. ✅Can never get help from professional representatives. All alone, they have to face the extremely complicated, stressful, and time-consuming process. If you can’t this over your head, let me explain this with the help of an example: First, try to put yourself into the shoes of a senior. Seniors who don’t have any income and solely depend on getting the maximum federal benefit from Social Security’s companion program. The complete Program Integrity adds insult to the injury when you don’t have any fault, & still got labeled as debtor by SSA. And when you’re labeled as a debtor, SSA attacks you to save Social Security money.
Social Security Administration Underpayments
Even though SSA is fast in correcting over-payment, it fails to do so when it’s time to correct the underpayments. 5 years back, SSA discovered that it was failing to pay benefits to thousands of children. But why did this happened in the 1st place? This happened because of computer errors. And the worst part is, even after the years that have passed away, SSA hasn’t even contacted those families much less you would expect them to pay for the due benefits. When summed up, the total underpayments can go around $142 million for 45K people. Republican-controlled congresses have cut down on SSA’s overall administrative budget and at the same time, marking the increased budget for the Program Integrity. All in all, it’s best for everyone if SSA returns to its core mission of helping everyone get the benefits for what they are eligible for. They should focus on underpayments as much they focus on over-payments. SSA should educate the public on their eligible benefits. That’s all for now. What is your take on Project Integrity? And most importantly, do share the problems you’ve encountered over the years because of SSA.
1 What is Program Integrity?2 Social Security Administration Underpayments
