Nobody wants to prevent any disabled person from receiving the most generous support allowed under the Social Security program. But every disability benefit dollar that goes to an ineligible recipient, either because of administrative inefficiency or criminal fraud, is a dollar denied to those who need it. That is why a new report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee should concern every compassionate American. The report describes a program with 20 million beneficiaries that is so lacking in basic managerial oversight that hundreds of billions of dollars in disability benefits are being lost to waste and fraud.

The report focused on the Administrative Law Judges working for the Social Security Administration. These officials are key links in the federal government’s chain of responsibility for deciding who gets disability benefits and how much money though should receive. “Red-flag” ALJs consider appeals from individuals who were previously denied benefits. Even though many of these applications had been twice denied by other ALJ officials, the red-flag AJLs approved 75 percent or more of the cases that came before them.