Matt Bruenig — Data Contradicts Washington Post’s Social Security Disability Welfare Cheating Story

The welfare-cheat model suggested by the piece is supposed to be that you have an adult who is on disability; they then realize that if they claim their kid is disabled, they can get more benefits; so they do that. But this model would predict the opposite of what you see in the last graph. The likelihood that a “disabled” child is in the same household as a disabled adult should go down as you climb the income ladder because there is no way to cheat welfare money when your household income puts you above the SSI eligibility thresholds. Instead, the likelihood goes up and up and up even as the incentives to spoof your kid’s disability go down and down and down.

Short article.

Naked Capitalism
Matt Bruenig: Data Contradicts Washington Post’s Social Security Disability Welfare Cheating Story