Sources say that the federal government has been attempting to use social media in order to find people who have been fraudulently receiving disability payments. As such, it might be wise to ensure that your Social media profiles on websites such on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram are consistent with your disability status. The United States Social Security Administration has stated that it intends to increase its reviewing social media profiles in order to discover more cases of fraudulent disability status. This is in response to what might be considered necessary actions toward the discovery of those who might be receiving benefits without an actual need for financial aid.
Sources also state that the White House has been working closely with the Social Security Administration in order to push this proposal further. The White House is advancing forward this action as a means of contradicting the previous administration, which they believe allowed programs like Social Security to grow out of control. The acting White House Chief of Staff has stated that funding for Social Security and other programs is not among their top priorities as an administration, and as such will do what they can to expose fraud and reduce expenses—despite that fact that the number of individuals seeking disability is declining.
As such, it is important to ensure you don’t have anything incriminating on your Social Media profiles; drawing unnecessary attention from anything could result in an unwanted nuisance in the form of an investigation. As is the case with many other scenarios, you should always be mindful of what you post on and social media outlet. Often it reflects a different point-of-view which, when taken out of context, could result in unexpected consequences.
The truth is that, while this process may be somewhat useful in finding actual fraudulent cases, it also isn’t necessarily reliable. The fact of the matter is that someone’s social media post might not reflect their own reality at the moment. An individual who is disabled would much rather present themselves in a happy and lively state on their profiles, and as such might try to show themselves behaving in a way someone with their own disability wouldn’t.
Fortunately, the federal government has yet to truly rely on social media to inspect whether individuals are fraudulently receiving disability. In the era of “Fake News,” it is obviously very difficult to cite a social media post as proper evidence in a criminal case. The Social Security program itself has always been plagued with fraud, and that won’t change much in an era in which our lives are posted all over the web. Social Security benefits are necessary for those who cannot work, yet there is no denying that there are those who would abuse the system. With all the pursuit toward discovering fraudulent cases, the best way to avoid being subject to auditing is to keep your disability status as honest and updated as frequently as possible.