I personally know people who are able-bodied who are on disability. They make up stuff like back problems, knee problems, etc.
But they can pull an engine out of a vehicle, go fishing, or do odd jobs for friends whenever.
I have another close friend, paralyzed from a motorcycle accident 9 years ago, who won’t miss a day of work unless he’s got a life-threatening pressure sore on his bottom.
I too notice all these peeps parking in DISABLED and jumping out and running into the Walmart or whatever.
That is usually thanks to the fact we have technology available to re-attach retinas.
So, what does GET AROUND really mean? Well, it means you are able to dress yourself and take care of your hygiene without a guide dog to show you where the toilet is. You might even be able to shop if you have third party transportation available.
Then, the ultimate, you can use your handy dandy wide screen HD TV as a computer screen and enlarge those letters big enough that you can come here to Free Republic to tell folks what "get around" means.
BTW, thanks to the surgery, and the elimination of any need to take more eyeball medications I can see quite fine with my left eye but if left with only my right it'd be GET AROUND time all day long.
I still use a 24" computer screen though ~ and I do have some problems editing what I write ~ but otherwise I look healthy, uninjured and ready to run alongside boxcars and hop transcontinental freights.
“I personally know people who are able-bodied who are on disability...But they can pull an engine out of a vehicle, go fishing, or do odd jobs for friends whenever.”
SSI Disability seems to be where the unemployed go who run out of unemployment benefits.
A guy I know who ran thru his 99 weeks was told by the counselor that he could apply for disability (back pain I think would have been the justification).
I hate to admit it, but my brother is among them. He got the disability awarded some years ago and makes sure he only works enough hours at WalMart to ensure he doesn’t go over the cap. He has pulled engines and trannys from his vehicles in the front yard of his run-down trailer during NY winters and never been incapaciated by the labors even thought they are far more strenuous than what a normal job would require.
***I personally know people who are able-bodied who are on disability. They make up stuff like back problems, knee problems, etc.****
Sounds like my worthless brother-in-law (If you know him he probably owes you money). When Reagan became President he quit work with the claim...”I’m not gonna pay taxes to Reagan!”
He has not worked since 1981. He took a high school injury, parleyed it into a Vietnam war injury and has been on disability since.
He got very fat, which did break down his knees and managed to get knee replacements from the VA.
It t burned me up to watch him work on his roof, mow the yard, rebuild engines and vehicles for his own use, then when a visitor showed up he grabbed his cane and hobbled out to meet them. You would have thought he was on his last legs.
Then when the visitor leaves, the cane is thrown in the corner, the limp disappeared and he went back to piddling around the house.
SSI is a wholesale scam.
SSI is through SS so the “takers” can pretend they paid into the system and just had bad luck. Sure some SSI is legit and I am not including them as “takers”.
If we want to give free disability put the program under its own hat, don’t tie it to SS which participants had to pay for all through their working years.
Fixed it. They get around better than I do and spend all my tax dollars taking vacations and buying new cars.
I have another story:
Female, married 21 years old.
She has managed to bamboozle the state officials into thinking that she is TOO STUPID to hold a job. IF she manages to continue fooling them for for 3 years total, she will stay on such ‘disability’ until she turns 65 & goes onto soc sec. Since she has BARELY worked in her entire life (so far), she will have the minimum social security.
She is currently getting paid $2100 a month. That is equivilant to $12.13 per hour, 40 hours a week. Where I live, $12.00 is a decent job, particularly for anyone with minimum skills.
Because I don’t know how close to 22 she is, let’s do some math:
Consider that she is 22 & will have such disability payments until she is 65. That equals 43 years. 43 years times 12 months equals 516 months of payments.
Consider that the value of those payments doesn’t even get a single ‘cost of living’ increase.
516 payments times $2100 per month equals $1,083,600. ONE MILLION, Eighty Three Thousand, Six Hundred dollars. TAXPAYER DOLLARS!!!!
Then she turns 65 & goes on what is left of ‘social security.’
I have never heard of ‘being too stupid to hold a job’ as a category for SSDI, but this woman is pulling that off.
Other members of the immediate family also draw money from the Feds/state , so the current intake of $$$ for the whole group is $9400 a month.
I find this more than disgusting & very disturbing.
I am trying to find a state legislator who will look into this for me. I want it stopped.
It's a welfare scam without pesky social workers - and it'll bring down the system faster than Obama can say furious - or wink and nod at the press.
there is a MASSIVE pool of lawyers who focus on this type of law.
You can even get disability for eating your self into obesity and all those related consequences.
it is all a wink and a nod. the administrative judge is a lawyer who will soon be hired or practicing that law privatly.
starving recent law grads find it easy money.