Parents 'coach' kids to be disabled, collect benefits

Parents are coaching their kids into pretending to be disabled in order to get benefits, and taxpayers are paying for it.

An inspector general audit of the Social Security Administration found the agency approved an unknown number of payments to children who weren't disabled.

One man got $77,000 a year, claiming disabilities for all eight of his kids. Not all the children had disabilities.

The report says case workers believed some parents may have withheld medication, told a child not to speak, or coached a child to “act up” to get cash benefits.

“If we are issuing these payments, we need to make sure they’re going to people who actually need them and not people who are abusing the system,” said Brandon Arnold, with the National Taxpayers Union.

An aunt claimed her niece couldn’t read, write or count. However, the child’s school reported the child wasn’t a special education student and was actually doing well in math. The payments ended.

“There are going to be children who might never talk, who might not ever have access to services, because someone is lying,” Arnold said.

In response to the audit, the government said it’s committed to combating this type of fraud, and that Congress has not given the agency enough money to complete timely reviews.

Cox Media Group