Q: I read with interest your columns about reforming Social Security. I'll tell you what's wrong with the system: it's all the people who are getting disability benefits but don't deserve them. I saw a couple on the "Judge Judy" television show who said they were both collecting disability benefits from Social Security, yet they were making lots of money under the table. Get rid of deadbeats like them and you would save enough money to keep Social Security going for the next 100 years!

A: Oh, if only it were that simple! But maybe you've hit on something. Instead of blue ribbon committees of economists and policy planners to study Social Security funding issues -- as most presidents in the past couple decades have appointed -- maybe Barack Obama should just make Judge Judy his Social Security Czar and put her in charge of fixing the system so it will be ready for future generations of retirees.

But seriously, folks!

When you're dealing with a giant government operation like the Social Security disability program, one that pays billions of dollars in benefits every month to millions of Americans, of course there are going to be a few bad apples who slip through the cracks and cheat the system. And some of them could even be dumb enough to go on a nationally syndicated TV show and reveal their dirty little secret.

But I hope you don't think they are typical of the millions of men, women and children who have severe physical and mental impairments and are receiving Social Security disability benefits.

As I said, a program as large as Social Security is bound to have a small amount of fraud and abuse associated with it. If you know of someone you think is cheating the system, call the Social Security Administration's fraud hotline at 800-269-0271. Or visit SSA's website at www.socialsecurity.gov and click on "Report Fraud Waste or Abuse" right on the homepage.

But I can tell you that a far more common complaint I get about the Social Security disability program is exactly the opposite of the problem you allege. Instead of a program that's wasting money on "deadbeats" as you believe, many, many more people write to me to say that they can't believe how stringent the disability benefit eligibility rules are.

A very common letter I get goes something like this: "I have this problem (insert name of impairment here) and I also have that problem (insert name of another impairment here), and I have been trying to get on Social Security disability for years and I keep getting turned down. I guess you have to be half-dead to get Social Security disability!"

So, some people, like you, tell me the Social Security disability program is rife with deadbeats and ne'er-do-wells cheating the system. While other people tell me that you have to have one foot in the grave to get benefits in the first place.

When you hear such divergent views, you might guess that the truth lies somewhere in between. And I can tell you, from my years of experience working for the Social Security Administration, that is indeed the case.

When Congress set up the Social Security disability program in the 1950s, they established a very strict legal definition of disability. To this day, the law says that to qualify for disability benefits, you must provide substantial medical evidence that proves you have a severe mental or physical impairment that will keep you from working for at least a year.

That doesn't mean you have to have one foot in the grave. And it certainly doesn't mean that benefits are handed out willy-nilly to deadbeats.