WASHINGTON — A handful of Social Security judges have improperly approved disability claims for nearly 25,000 people who didn’t qualify, costing taxpayers $2 billion over the past seven years, government investigators conclude in a report to be released Monday.
The price tag will grow by nearly $300 million next year because many of these people are still getting benefits, the report said.
Investigators from Social Security’s office of inspector general examined cases decided by 44 judges who had been approving disability claims at unusually high rates.
The judges were labeled ‘‘outliers’’ because they had approved 85 percent of claims they heard in at least two of the previous seven years.
The judges represent about 4 percent of the administrative law judges who decide disability claims for Social Security, the report said.
‘‘The Social Security Administration’s failure to conduct timely medical eligibility reviews has resulted in rubber-stamped decisions that have and will continue to cost taxpayers billions in improper awards,’’ said US Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican. ‘‘In failing to take meaningful disciplinary action at the Social Security Administration, even after the most egregious cases of mismanagement, taxpayers are left to wonder, who is looking after their tax dollars?’’
The report said improved oversight of judges in the past several years has reduced the number who approve claims at unusually high rates.