Posted on 07/31/2012 6:34:37 AM PDT by Hojczyk
This paradox is getting expensive. SSDI spending has doubled as a percentage of gross domestic product in the last 25 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The program paid $128.9 billion to 8.3 million beneficiaries in fiscal 2011, about one-fifth of all Social Security spending.
The answers lie in SSDI’s haphazard history. When first adopted in 1956, the program applied only to workers older than 50 who were terminally ill or unable to work for the rest of their lives. It was essentially an early-retirement program for people with cancer, heart disease and other grave physical conditions.
In 1960, however, Congress removed the minimum age requirement, and in 1965, it allowed people to qualify if they suffered from a condition rendering them unable to “engage in substantial gainful activity” for a year or more, including mental and musculoskeletal ailments.
After that, the rolls swelled with people claiming crippling back aches and depression. Both the Carter and Reagan administrations tried to cull undeserving cases, but the resulting backlash was so strong that Congress actually liberalized the rules in 1984. In 2010, mental and musculoskeletal conditions accounted for 54 percent of all new SSDI cases, according to the CBO.
Though Washington pays benefits, states help decide who qualifies. Approval rates vary wildly across the country. Experience has been consistent in one respect, however: Applications spike during serious recessions, as laid-off workers turn to SSDI when unemployment benefits run out. Thanks to the Great Recession, applications spiked in 2010 to an all-time high of 2.94 million, before declining slightly last year.
I don’t mean to imply that all, or even most, SSDI beneficiaries are malingering. Indeed, some of the recent increase in enrollment would have occurred anyway due to the aging of the population.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Just signing up more democrat voters. The equivalent of five dollars and a ham sandwich. I’m told you just claim
a bad back and secondary is depression from having a bad back!
—I’m told you just claim a bad back and secondary is depression from having a bad back!—
Tell that line to FReeper 2DV and see where it takes ya. He has serious problems and can’t get a disability claim approved.
He’s probably trying to do it the right way: having a doctor state the problem and then honestly fill out the paperwork. The way to get SSDI is to pay a shyster lawyer to ‘finagle’ your claim....
I guy from my hometown “slipped” while climbing into the seat of a dozer and hurt his back. He’s been on SS since 1970.
It varies by state (TX),
IIRC, he has used a lawyer for two of his three applications. I was hoping that he would chime in from the ping and tell of his trip through the SSDI process.
Exactly. In my fairly small city, there is at least one law firm that does nothing but SSDI claims. Their ads crow, “It’s all we do!”
When I first saw that ad, I was amazed and appalled that there are enough people claiming SSDI in my area that an entire law firm can make a living off their claims. Now I realize that SSDI claims are a lucrative and growing business for lawyers. They are very good at getting more and more people permanently out of the productive economy and onto permanent government dependence...just like Democrats!
saw it last night, lady with manicured nails, cell phone and necklaces/ear rings on disability for “fibromyalgia” “bipolar” bullsh#t... I do a survey while at work in the ER and ask if they need a work note. 90% of patients that say “I ain’t got to work” would look like Obamas sons and daughters if he was a heterosexual and actually procreated.
My ex-brother in law was collecting SSDI payments before it became cool. His two boys were also getting $400/mo each until they turned 18. He wasn’t too disabled to work, just too damn lazy and too much of a baby to keep a job.
Here’s just a partial list:
Heart disease
High blood pressure (uncontrolled, even w/meds)
Edema (**this** close to a wheelchair)
Apnea
Bone spurs
Bad Diabetes
Hearing and sight
etc, etc...
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