Posted on 04/20/2012 5:09:20 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program.
This is straining already-stretched government finances while posing a long-term economic threat by creating an ever-growing pool of permanently dependent working-age Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
I’m certain at least some of those joining the disability rolls are those with severe chronic conditions who can either find work, or can no longer find work that pays enough to maintain the level of health needed to work full time.
reparations.. these people are going to be pissed when that gravy train stops..
oops
can either find work = can either no longer find work
All-fancy names for ‘reparations’
Why work?? seriously?
“The main causes of this broader trend, according to a study by economists David Autor and Mark Duggan, are the loosening of eligibility rules by Congress in 1984, the rise in disability benefits relative to wages, and the fact that more women have entered the workforce, making them eligible for disability.”
This would seem to imply that women are drawing benefits at a higher rate than men. Wonder why?
You could throw in Obamacare into that mix.

WOW
The Disability and Unemployment figures are almost neck-and-neck
Can't work you have a right to other peoples money.. Call today..!!!
Voting for Obama is a disibilty.
Important post.
Remember this number, 5.4 Million; because all those people on the public dole are excluded from Obama’s cooked unemployment 8 % number.
This is the problem with sweeping the national debt and deficits under the table as an issue. Politicians are responding to polls that show that (most) voters are concerned more about jobs and the economy than they are by the deficits by about 20%; and there really is no Republicans making an effective case against the debts to change that.(Certainly not Romney)
Same here in Illinois.
Talking to my lawyer the other day (My adoption lawyer), he told me that people can no longer collect disability simply because they are drug addicts. So they now just come up with some other disability, he says it's either bad back or bad neck, both hard to disprove.
It used to be that it was very difficult to get a claim approved for federal disability, and that you had to be both totally and permanently disabled. Does anyone know whether that is still the case?
People hire lawyers to do it now.
They get disabled and lose the use of their legs because they sit around all day on their fat a$$es collecting checks from hard working, tax paying citizens.
It also has a lot to do with your occupation. For example, I’m a pipefitter, am required to do lifting, climbing scaffold and be on my feet all day. I have high blood preasure and the medicine I take can make me drowsey and have very little stamina. I have done this type of work for most of my life and @ 59 I can no longer do that type of work. So that is a disability. Now, had I been a desk jockey with the same ailment it might not be considered as a disability.
Its not a disability. Find another line of work.
They also made kids prescribed for Ritalin as eligible for Disability Compensation.
Yeah right, did you miss the part that I am 59? Who is going to hire someone at my age with no experience working in an office or in an environment conducive to my health?
They also made kids prescribed for Ritalin as eligible for Disability Compensation.
correction - “rinking problem” s/b “drinking problem.”
Well, it used to be, that for Social Security disability benefits, you had to be disabled and unable to perform ANY occupation, not just your OWN occupation. In the open market for individual disability income insurance, the premium is higher for someone who wants coverage based on their OWN occupation than for ANY occupation coverage.
Age is a factor in determination.Older workers are given that. I have worked all my life and have paid dearly into the system and I would much rather work and get paid 4-5 times what disability pays but thats not gonna happen.
Nowadays, not too difficult to apply/receive federal disability payments. Some years ago, a federal ruling was enacted that disability payments would continue during the application and/or appeal process. Hence all incentive to schedule, show up for final hearings was negated. Recipients simply 'played' the system and delayed, delayed, delayed.Disability recipients would simply state the serious illness of a family member, a snow storm, the bus was delayed, a change in legal representation, could NOT get transportation to SS Office. With the SS Offices' hearings backlog, a 'reschedule' was set many moths later. All the while payments would be sent to applicants.
Should also be noted that many applicants are second, even third generation recipients.
Also note that the there were cuts in the numbers of SS investigators to root out cheats, fraudulent claims. SS employee set forth that SS disability claimants would show up for their formal hearing wearing neck braces, using crutches, canes, bent over. But after the hearing, at lunch, some 'claimants' were seen without any of the aforementioned braces, canes...etc.
For many attorneys, these claim filings/hearings are their prevalent source of income.
Well, it used to be, that for Social Security disability benefits, you had to be disabled and unable to perform ANY occupation, not just your OWN occupation. In the open market for individual disability income insurance, the premium is higher for someone who wants coverage based on their OWN occupation than for ANY occupation coverage.
(Sorry for double post.)
Who wants to bet the vast majority of the folks signing up for ‘disability’ look like they could be Obama’s sons?
Here’s the real problem - people who are faking disability by going ‘mental’ will destroy the system for people who really need disability. When they bring down this program the people who really ARE disabled will die - and the con artists will move on to a some other scam.
You can't make this stuff up.
With very few exceptions in my current practice, anyone able to make it in to my office for an appointment is able to hold a job, and the examples of people doing just that are often very inspiring.
For the most part, with the ADA and other such laws, if you want to work, employers see to it that you are accommodated. With the SSDI system if you don’t want to work, you are paid anyway - with my money, which I resent.
Get a job as a desk jockey or something similar, why don’t you, or start your own business doing what you can. An LLC costs about $80 to start up where I live. If you can sit at a computer reading and typing, you’re not too “drowsy” to pay your own way in life.
I have paid my own way in life, and I see it as my money that I have already paid in, not yours.Disability insurance is just that, insurance. Now, if your talking about the millions that have never worked or paid into the sytem, and claim disabilty, then I see your point. My wife died at 63, was on disability for 3 years prior, she also worked her whole life. If she had not collected for those 3 years, everything she paid into the system would have been lost except for the $255 sent for her death.People who have paid into the system all their life should be granted some leeway, that’s what it is there for.
Almost as many disability (DI program) lawyers advertising as people selling gold.
5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks
But!
People don't just sign-up and start getting disability checks.. and NO I have never applied for disability and YES I do get regular Social Security (I'm over 70).
The article leads off with 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks
The chart says ratio of workers on disability to active workers.
But!
We know that dependents (including of active workers) can get disability payments for a variety of reasons. So what are we talking about here?
Worker's only or all forms of DI including SSI? -- SS handles SSI (includes disabilities that are not part of SSDI). SSI is for people who have never paid into SS -- mostly elderly foreigners, I think. I could be wrong.
[R]esearch found that the aging of the population has contributed only modestly to the program's growth.
Well good at least the authors didn't go out of the way to malign us geezers.. BTW, I believe that if you apply for SSDI at 55+, you meet the requirements, and you have no skills for jobs that are deemed plentiful.. I think they must start mailing checks to you. So kudos to us geezers.
The explosive growth in disability enrollment also "helps explain some of the drop in the labor force participation rate," noted economist Ed Yardeni on his blog.
Just a couple of months ago there was a major adjustment to the census figures that are used by BLS.. it was "discovered" that there were a whole lot more old fuddy duddies in the population than heretofore realized -- so the 55 - 65 group was bumped up by a couple of million and of course we all know that geezers don't participate as much as younger workers so the participation rate was adjusted downward -- and so Obama's unemployment rate fell a bunch. Surprise.
I am positive that people on SSDI are (supposed to be) questioned regularly to continue the SSDI payments. At least government employees are suppose to do it. BTW, I think that the feds give the task of judging disabilities to the states.
.. also I thought that there were already options other than full-time disability at least there was help to get back to work.
Why do I care? Like I said I do collect SS and the attacks usually do not distinguish between legal and fraud. Government hands out hundreds of billions of dollars wrongly and fraudulently every month.
Why can't we see articles concerned about that -- at least eliminate the fraud then go after doing away with government programs like SS?
Another reason I pay attention though not directly involved is I remember the IMO stupid comments -- even by popular conservative talk show hosts -- years ago about the jobs created during the recovery from the 2001 recession. They were yelling at anyone who did not accept the BLS household survey count of jobs created but who instead used the long-accepted and ACTUAL count of jobs created that the BLS establishment survey provides.
I think this begins the description of the various DI programs that SS administers.
Disability Evaluation Under Social Security (Blue Book- September 2008)
Thanks sickoflibs.
So which is more corrupt, SSI or Food Stamps?
I’d guess SSI because the dollar amounts are greater and it is a lifetime “benefit.”
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