The disability rate of 20-30 year olds really jumped in the last few years.
Example #1: A couple of weeks ago, my brother, an orthopedist, had a 26-year-old man come in for an ankle sprain. In the course of working up the ankle -- mildly sprained, no problem -- he found that the patient doesn't work and is on 100% disability. Why? Because of acne. Yes, acne. Apparently when he was 19 or 20 he had such severe acne that someone deemed him unable to work and he was approved for 100% disability. Even though his skin now is perfectly clear, with some minor acne scarring the only remaining blemish, this man will likely never work a day in his life -- he will be drawing a disability check from the government for the next 60 years.
Example #2: Another brother is a police officer. Or was. He recently retired, at age 52, and now will draw a $70,000/year pension for the next few decades, which is a separate but related issue. But he tells me that -- even though he didn't personally take advantage of this ploy -- it is routine for retiring police officers and firefighters to go to "friendly" doctors and have those doctors certify them as disabled so they can get disability checks in addition to their pensions. It's called "taking the disability topper" or "getting DA'd."
The solution of course is transparency. Stop treating police as holier than thou. They're just government workers. "Trust but verify" works wonders for keeping people honest. Good people as well as bad, because it removes temptation.
Worse, there is no solution is site. Who is going to arrest these crooked cops? Other cops? They're on the take as well.
>He recently retired, at age 52, and now will draw a $70,000/year pension for the next few decades
Illinois has a pension crisis we can't get out of because of this. These union handouts and insane pensions that are 100% unaffordable. Right now every man, woman, and child in Illinois owes $26,000 in taxes to pay these pensions out. Who is going to pay this stuff?
The fraud burden typically lies with the agency that's cutting the checks. Other agencies (IRS, SEC) deal with fraud in their specific areas and do not rely on police except the very specific step of arresting the individual, which in these cases may never happen.
<< About 600 Long Island Rail Road retirees will lose their disability benefits after a federal agency voted last week to halt the payments, amid a sweeping investigation into what prosecutors have called a major disability fraud scheme, according to agency documents and officials.
The agency, the United States Railroad Retirement Board, which over more than a decade granted disability benefits to hundreds of railroad retirees based on fraudulent medical evidence with little scrutiny, took the action on Thursday during a five-minute meeting at its headquarters in Chicago. The vote approved procedures under which the board will cut off the benefits, which, officials said, are costing the agency $2 million a month. >>
A bunch of the people involved have gone to prison over this fraud:
<< The first terminations came several weeks after the doctor who submitted what prosecutors have said was the bogus medical evidence underlying the applications of the roughly 600 retired railroad workers pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to fraud and conspiracy. The doctor, Peter J. Ajemian, told the judge in January that the retirees were not in fact disabled. …
Dr. Ajemian, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, is among 24 people — including retirees, another doctor and two facilitators — who since 2011 have pleaded guilty to federal charges resulting from of the investigation. Charges against eight other people indicted in the case are pending, and the investigation by the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in Manhattan, officials have said, is continuing. >>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/nyregion/600-long-island-r...
Would disabled veterans be reflected in these numbers?
http://www.ibtimes.com/va-stops-releasing-data-injured-vets-...
Which I think uses these numbers:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/epidemiology/reports/oefoifon...
Which are the numbers of veterans that accessed VA facilities for health care, not the numbers of veterans that were injured (disabling injuries are one of the major eligibility factors for the VA, but there are other veterans that would also be eligible for VA services).