Interesting how you put that question. One cannot go on “disability” without an administrative judge approving. I hear tales of people who supposedly get SSD while being healthy enough to run marathons but I never meet those people. In this area you meet a lot of those who look like the walking dead but cannot get Social Security Disability benefits even though they have worked and paid into the system for decades. My wife went twelve years with no earnings and no health insurance after working ten years with doctors telling her she should be on disability. Finally, after going through every possible step of appeals she was approved and only got five years backpay out of the twelve. At one stage she had to pay two hundred dollars out of her own pocket to go to the next appeal level. It ain’t the rose garden some people think it is.
Having said that let me add that I think the whole social security system is unconstitutional and is a net negative, we would have been better off without it.
One of the guys who often joined my golf foursome walked 36 holes playing above average golf and pushing his golf cart. Guess what? He was collecting disability checks because one of his legs was thinner than the other!
Some people do actually need the disability payments.
Many others, however, are just abusing the system. A neighbor’s son has been on “disability” for over 10 years. He and his girlfriend both get it. Both in their 40’s. Both smoke dope, spend much time on their computers throughout the day. Both physically in better shape than many older folks you might see in the work force limping around (like those older souls at Walmart still having to work).
Mentally also this guy and girlfriend are okay (though would be much more capable if they weren’t smoking dope).
Somehow they got on the “system” years ago and are able to continue in it. They have no plans to look for a job. They also get food stamps. No telling how many other thousands across the U.S. are doing the exact same thing. There is much abuse in the disability system. But I realize there are legitimate cases also.
“it ain’t a rose garden.” you are forgetting the dirty little secret...if you are a member of a protected class, your application for SSD/SSI goes sailing through no questions asked. If you are a member of the “opressor” class aka caucasian, your application gets sandbagged from the get go.
Very much akin to the Lois Lerner situation.