The Trump Administration is working on its 2020 budgets, and the proposed financing for the Social Security Administration (SSA) is catching some attention. According to initial reports, a request for additional funding would largely go to the hiring of SSA investigators who would be permitted to search through the social media account applicants.
The purpose behind the proposed budget increase and the desired investigator positions has been announced as fraud prevention. The investigators would look for pictures, videos, and posts that would suggest someone’s injuries were not as severe as reported. For example, a person bouncing on a trampoline in a video posted on their Facebook wall probably should not be getting disability benefits if their reported disability is a leg injury.
However, Attorney Adrian DeGori of Robert Peirce & Associates, P.C. in Pittsburgh is wary. She was interviewed by WPXI 11 News about the proposed budget and change of SSA methods. She warned that it would likely not show any real perspective into the day-to-day lives of disability applicants. “People aren’t posting the bad days, the days when they’re sick in bed,” she explained in her interview. In other words, an investigation would have a disproportionately high chance of finding a post that showed an applicant having some sort of fun when most of their days might actually be quite contrary.
For more information about the proposed SSA budget change, you can click here to view the full WPXI article featuring Attorney DeGori. If you require help with a Social Security Disability case of your own, you can call Robert Peirce & Associates, P.C. at (844) 383-0565 to request a free initial consultation.