Social Security officials paid out $1.3 billion of disability insurance benefits to people who also drew unemployment benefits in 2014, government auditors told Congress on Wednesday.
“We don’t think that this is a prudent use of the federal government’s money to give both full disability benefits and unemployment benefits at the same time,” Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.
The audit noted that Social Security officials make the errant payments even when the beneficiaries provide accurate information. GAO spotlighted the Social Security Administration as part of a broader review of the federal government to identify redundant or inefficient programs that cost billions of dollars in government waste.
GAO has been issuing these reports for five years, dating back to 2010 when then-Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., added an amendment to the debt limit increase bill that required the reviews, although the recommendations are often ignored.
“Tens of billions in savings for taxpayers has already been realized as the result of former Sen. Coburn’s amendment requiring the GAO to issue its duplication reports,” said Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
“Total savings exceed $100 billion after fully implementing only 41 percent of the GAO’s recommendations. This report highlights how important it is for the administration to take the GAO’s remaining recommendations seriously. Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying the price for Washington’s wasteful duplication.”
The latest report offered 92 recommendations for Congress and the executive branch to take to cut down on waste. Some were as simple as collecting all the taxes that are owed, especially when the IRS receives a tip that people are skirting their tax bill.
“Public referral programs enable individuals to submit information to IRS about tax noncompliance, and they are an important piece of IRS’ overall enforcement strategy and can help reduce the net $385 billion tax gap — the difference between taxes owed and those ultimately collected,” the GAO report said. “IRS agreed with our recommendations and plans to implement the whistleblower recommendations by October 2016. IRS has not yet provided an action plan or time frames for other referral program recommendations as of March 2016.”
