According to the Census Bureau report, analyzing data from the fourth quarter of 2011, 49.2 percent of Americans live in a household where someone receives “food stamps Medicaid or other programs.” There was a slight uptick in households with the elderly receiving Social Security and Medicare, but the largest increases went to the poor.

With the very weak job market, many people misinterpret the data that shows increases to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in the last few years as meaning the unemployed are applying to SSDI after their unemployment benefits are exhausted and using it as an extended unemployment insurance program.

The only cases where that could happen would involve someone who had suffered a physical or mental impairment and been out of work for 12 months or more. And this may happen, for instance, where an individual has worked in a manual labor trade, like health-care aid or landscaper, and injured their back by years of heavy lifting.

Because they do not have training for sedentary work, with their injury, they will be unlikely to find any work. Their injury will leave them disabled and would allow them to obtain SSDI benefits. Of course, they would need to apply for SSDI and have their application approved.

With many office workers out of work, those with less training and experience have little chance of obtaining employment in a less strenuous line of work.

A challenge for any government benefit program is to control costs. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a case in point. The program offers financial support for low-income individuals who are blind or disabled.

Children are eligible for the SSI benefits and it can provide an essential supplement for parents and caregivers who often face many difficult struggles while coping with the costs of doctors and hospital visits, prescription drugs and other healthcare equipment.

From an administrative point of view, these programs can see ever increasing expenses due to beneficiaries being added to the program when they are young (children can be eligible for SSI from birth), and spending their entire life receiving benefits. And allegations of fraud are always being raised as the costs for the programs increase.

One way to help children on SSI become capable of no longer needing the program is to provide them with the education and job training that enables them to obtain work as adults.

A new demonstration initiative, PROMISE (Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income), was announced by the Department of Education, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services and will take place in 11 states.

The program will attempt to coordinate services for children on SSI and improve their education, training and eventual job prospects.

If successful, these demonstration projects could be rolled out in all the states and help children nationwide. It would also provide a benefit to the Social Security Administration by slowing the growth and the expense of the program.

A 2-year-old may be many things, but disingenuous is generally not one of them. Aside from not really understanding the concept, they are typically the opposite, saying aloud what many people may think, but would never utter. So, with all the allegations of fraud within government disability programs like Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental security income (SSI), one would not suspect that a 2-year-old would present a questionable case for benefits.

In Philadelphia, a 2-year-old girl suffered damage to the nerves of her arm during birth. A condition known as Klumpke’s palsy, it results from an injury to the shoulder of a child, often by being wrenched during birth. It causes paralysis in the arm and is usually permanent.

She is an otherwise a happy, active child, but she is beginning to become frustrated with her disability. She should seemingly qualify for a disability program like SSI, as her parents earn less than the federal poverty guidelines for a family of three, in spite of her mother working two jobs as a health care aid.

Their application for SSI has been denied three times and they are now appealing the decision to a federal court. While reports often surface regarding fraud and abuse with disability programs like SSI, a professor of disability policy from Brandeis University noted that “SSI rules are byzantine and too strict,” and that families that should be able to obtain benefits from SSI are denied.

It is always unfortunate when people with genuine disabilities and needs are denied benefits because the system has been made so complex by efforts to prevent fraud.