A watchdog report last week revealed that Social Security overpaid about $17 billion in disability payments in the past decade.

Reports of overpayments of disability payments are not new, but the latest report, by the Social Security inspector general, puts a price tag — a very big price tag — on the overpayments.

While $17 billion over ten years sounds like a massive amount, Social Security officials claim that 99.8 percent of all Social Security disability payments were free of overpayment.

Those numbers seem to be at odds. How can $17 billion in overpayments happen while only .02 percent of payments are improper? What program, government or private sector, operated with 99.8 accuracy? Maybe that figure deserves further examination.

Another troubling part of the story is that the disability program has grown rapidly in the past eight years or so. Some analysts see the rapid growth corresponding with the arrival of the Great Recession and suggest Social Security’s disability program has become another sort of welfare. They also suggest, as did a 2013 investigative report aired by the news show “60 Minutes” on CBS, that many people who are not really disabled are receiving benefits.

Too often, those who call for reforming safety-net programs such as Social Security disability insurance are labeled as cold-hearted. For their part, reformers stress they are not looking to take needed money from the deserving, but they want to stop overpayments, unwarranted payments, payments to people who are not disabled — and save that money for the truly disabled.

The latest overpayments report was accompanied by a forecast that the SSDI program will run out of money near the end of this year. If nothing is done, making those payments will take money out of the regular Social Security program, possibly reducing benefits in the future.

Predictions that the disability program is in trouble are not new. In February, President Barack Obama shifted money from regular Social Security to the disability program to delay its running out of money.

The “60 Minutes” expose on the Social Security disability program focused on the rapid growth in people receiving payments and on the apparent ease with which people are able to receive benefits, despite having questionable disabilities.

The CBS report found that the disability program has grown most in areas of high unemployment and poverty. Defenders of the program argue that the increase in disability payments has more to do with demographics — aging baby boomers are developing ailments that prevent them from working.

There is disagreement over the scale of the problem. Social Security officials claim 99.8 of all payments were “free of overpayment.” A study by the University of Michigan found about 7 percent of payments were “problematic.”

Former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who was featured in the “60 Minutes” program said his staff conducted a random survey that showed that 25 percent of disability files should not have been approved and another 25 percent were “highly questionable.” The current inspector general’s report found that 45 percent of all recipients were overpaid at some point.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, correctly noted that “Every dollar that goes to overpayments doesn’t help someone in need.” That view should drive changes to the system. Dollars prevented from going to someone undeserving can be kept in the system to support the truly disabled.

The $17 billion in overpayments over a decade is troubling. But it’s just as troubling that this problem did not just develop last week or last month. It’s been going on for years and has been described in multiple reports, including the 2013 report by CBS. All the reports describe the odd acceleration in recipients and billions of dollars in questionable payments. Yet, it appears Washington is doing nothing, other than shifting money from one Social Security fund to another.