10/21/25 - The next fraud panic?

Good afternoon ...

I've been putting off sharing and discussing the Washington Post's recent reporting on alleged fraud in Veterans Administration disability benefits. I avoided it because “benefits fraud“ is one of my least favorite disability issues. I feel much the same about accessible parking violations and “fake” service animals. All three have grains of truth, but generate disproportionate amounts of outrage, while serving almost no constructive purpose for anyone. Still, I suppose it’s worth a look.

VA’s disability program is an ‘honor system.’ These veterans are defrauding it.

Craig Whitlock, Lisa Rein and Nate Jones, Washington Post - October 8, 2025

"VA’s $193 billion disability program — one of the biggest line items in the federal budget — has become a rich target for fraudsters, according to a Washington Post investigation. Each year, the agency’s inspector general opens dozens of criminal cases into veterans like Kilpatrick who are suspected of faking injuries or illnesses for money.”

I’m a veteran on disability. This reporting hurt me.

Letters to the Editor, Washington Post - October 13, 2025

"By conflating a long-overdue surge in legitimate claims with a few cherry-picked anecdotes of bad actors, the stories in the Oct. 9 front-page article about the Department of Veterans Affairs ended up casting millions of veterans as opportunists instead of men and women finally receiving the care they deserve."

Veterans groups rip Post for investigation into VA disability program

Craig Whitlock, Washington Post - October 14, 2025

"The two articles last week generated an unusually heavy reader response: more than 5,000 comments online and scores of emails and phone calls … Some readers echoed the complaints from the advocacy groups. But others, including many veterans, said the problems highlighted by The Post were the tip of the iceberg."

I do find it at least somewhat believable that there might be a few systemic problems and practices, very specific to the VA, that have resulted in an unusual number of really brazen frauds. Some possible solutions seem kind of obvious – like hiring more inspectors instead of firing them. But it’s hard to see how such a situation could be sensibly fixed in this current political environment, without the situation devolving into a full-blown panic that would end up hurting the majority of disabled veterans, and further eroding the entire idea of disability-related benefits.

The whole thing reminds me of another series of articles, most notably by National Public Radio, that briefly produced a surge of concern about supposedly widespread fraud in Social Security Disability Insurance in the late-2010s. That issue has never quite gone away. But it didn’t produce much of a popular movement against SSDI. So far at least, concern about "disability fraud" and improper diagnosis has remained mostly a niche concern of wonky fiscal conservatives. In any case, rises in approval slacked off as the economy improved for a time. Now the bigger scandal is why Social Security is too slow in reviewing new applicants.

This story may also resonate with British folks who have been dealing with a much more aggressive, broadly popular, and damaging campaign against disability benefits "scroungers" for well over ten years now.

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