Disabling security

Social Security | Hundreds of thousands of Americans are gaming Supplemental Security Income—and doing great damage to themselves and their children | Marvin Olasky

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

Dec. 13 is the fifth anniversary of the death of a 4-year-old, Rebecca Riley. She died on the floor of her parents' Massachusetts bedroom. She was one more victim of governmental compassion.

Eight million Americans now receive SSI, Supplemental Security Income, because the Social Security Administration deems them unable to hold a job now or at some point in the future. Washington will typically give each person so classified about $700 per month. Rebecca Riley's parents received about $30,000 because administrators had deemed them and their two older children "disabled" because of "mood swings" and attention deficits.

Last year, after extended legal wrangling, jurors found the parents guilty of murdering Rebecca by giving her a fatal overdose of a drug taken for bipolar disorders. Their goal, prosecutors said, was to increase their income by having their 4-year-old also diagnosed as disabled. To do that they had to make sure that she ingested lots of powerful medicine garnered by way of a prescription-wielding doctor.