Individuals Hiding Self-Employment Income to Receive Disability Insurance Benefits

Self-employed individuals annually report self-employment income (SEI) to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS then provides the Social Security Administration this SEI information, which is posted to SSA’s Master Earnings File and used to determine eligibility for retirement, survivors, disability, and health insurance benefits as well as to calculate benefit amounts. Reporting SEI under another person’s SSN could make an individual appear to be eligible for Disability Insurance (DI) benefits when he/she is not eligible.  Our objective was to identify individuals receiving DI benefits who participated in self-employment activities and concealed the income by reporting it under another person’s Social Security number.