Let's take a highly functional or incomplete quadriplegic for example. Able to somewhat use their hands but unable to do things like empty a urinary drainage bag etc. Next is the problem about being up in a wheelchair for the work day. One pressure sore can mean weeks if not months in bed. This is but a few examples. There are also non visable disabilities like CHF and other disorders s well. Just because a person can walk does not mean they can function in a work place at gainfull employment.
Despite what the senator says S.S. disability is in fact not that easy to obtain. The first filing is denied almost automatically even with ample proof from many doctors including the SS agencies contracted examiners. The first appeal with overwhelming proof might get you on disability. Odds are likely about 1 in 3. The rest will spend years going through lawyers, hearings, more appeals, and in the meantime no income except possibly SSI. BTW getting SSDI does not mean one qualifies for SSI. If you made a dollar above minimum wage before applying for disability chances are once you receive SSDI you will have to pay back the SSI from your first check which is back pay usually.
I know a few disabled persons. I know of no one on it fraudulently. There are much easier state and federal programs to access with a much lower burden of proof for assistance than disability.
For many lower income workers this will be their sole income if becoming disabled. Some who had better paying jobs or were under a great corporate benefits package may have additional coverage that some may mistake as SSDI. The standards for obtaining payment would vary from policy to policy.
The first thing a person usually looses when becoming disabled is their healthcare insurance. Generally within 60 days most employers stop paying. That means you are placed on COBRA which to a disabled person who can not work is just not a realistic option.
I disagree with the senators assessment on this issue. I would also bet that most disabled were likely blue collar low to lower middle class workers. It would make sense because they would likely be doing more physically demanding jobs. My last job out of about a dozen person I worked with over 5 years 4 of them died during that time and one went on disability. That one was me. Before I went to work there the foreman dropped dead in his office.
Your SSDI payment depends on what you paid in. Every ones payment varies due to what they paid in. Does anyone in here think they can live on $618 a month or maybe $813? I know persons who draw about that much. IOW it is by no means a get rich program for most. It is forced medical retirement. I know another person who draws $1500 a month.
There is a lot of waste and fraud in government no doubt but SSDI is about the strictest program there is.
From the disability side....I worked with a guy in the 1990s who had a brother who claimed disability. My co-worker was absolute in opinion that the injury was bogus. The guy was only pulling around $850 a month so it was hard for me to envision going this direction...for such a limited amount of money...and thinking you could really live off this.
Every kid (what % now?) diagnosed with ADD, ADHD (actually bored with lousey schools) or whatever the fad is SSI for life. There is no cure. They will be doped for life.
Find a welfare mom and I guarantee they are also getting SSI for a kid.
yitbos
Wrong, girl down the street from me got knocked up by a worthless druggie, in the last fifteen years he has spent ten in jail, they. Had three kids before her mother made the doc spade her. She has never worked a day in her life and now is on ssi. Claims she has a bad back, must have got from laying on it.
You ain’t been around welfare mothers I take it. A seriously large percentage get SSI “crazy” checks for their kids for ADH, etc.
Getting on SSDI is not as difficult as you think.
I have a close family member who has fabricated a case of fibromyalgia and an anxiety disorder.
Believe me, I am very close to this person and she has no symptoms of fibromyalgia and maybe a mild case at best of anxiety.
She got her high priced psyc doctor to help her with the paper work and hired an attorney as well.
It took a few years but her lies worked. I remember her first check from SSDI was for over 60,000 dollars....no joke.
She now makes about $800 and something a month.
Believe me she can work. What she is doing is a total scam and we taxpayers are paying for her to sit at home and watch movies.’
Did I mention she just bought a brand new Ford today? I pay an enormous amount a year in fed taxes to pay for her lies but I can’t afford a new car.
It makes me sick.
I know there are people who are truly disabled....my brother was in a very bad car accident which left him with severe brain damage. He couldn’t speak, walk, use his hands, nothing. It took him 10 years going through the motions and denials until a judge finally took one look at him and granted him the disability.
In my estimation at least 50 to 75 percent of the people receiving disability benefits from SS are full of baloney and gaming the system.
Including my family member.
We had a man in our Sunday School class who needed a heart transplant, couldn’t work even if he wanted to. Took him 3 tries to get on SSDI. Was on it 2 years before he could find a ‘match’. A year after the transplant when he was stable, he was back to work and off SSDI.
You are living in a dream world.
SSDI/SSI is the biggest scam in the world.
Particularly for children.