CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office's disability fraud partnership generated nearly $6 million in savings during the most recent year, which represents a rebound after COVID-19 shutdowns affected investigations.
The AG's office says the partnership generated $5,854,619 in projected savings for the state and federal governments from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021. Total savings now exceed $30,495,071 since the partnership’s inception in West Virginia.
“We continue our work to root out fraud in order to yield significant savings for the Mountain State,” Morrisey said in a press release. “Disability fraud is particularly disturbing. It takes from those who are unable to provide for themselves and jeopardizes the stability of Social Security.
Morrisey
"We must keep up our fight to protect those who legitimately rely upon such assistance.”
The Cooperative Disability Investigations Unit is a partnership with the Social Security Administration. It investigates suspicious or questionable disability claims as well as beneficiaries, claimants and any third parties who facilitate fraud.
The unit’s findings help disability examiners make informed decisions and ensure payment accuracy while also equipping state and federal prosecutors with the facts needed to secure a conviction.
CDI Units help resolve questions of potential fraud, in many instances before benefits are ever paid. The Attorney General’s Office joined the program in December 2015, making it a first-of-its-kind unit for West Virginia.
The state’s unit joins two investigators and an analyst from the Attorney General’s Office with representatives from SSA, its Office of the Inspector General and the state’s Disability Determination Section.
Nationally, the CDI program is one of the most successful anti-fraud initiatives with regard to federal disability programs. It operates 46 units covering 40 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, in addition to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
If someone suspects disability fraud, members of the public are asked to contact the Social Security Fraud Hotline at https://oig.ssa.gov/report; send U.S. Mail to PO Box 17785, Baltimore, MD 21235; fax (410) 597-0118; or call (800) 269-0271 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.