Powerline blog has a post up entitled “Obama is Driving us Crazy” (via Instapundit) about the surge in the Social Security Disability claims for mental illness:
Unemployment is down, according to the official numbers, yet more people than ever are not working. What are they doing instead? The New York Post reports that an astonishing number of them are classifying themselves as disabled in order to continue receiving government benefits:
Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging. During the recent economic boom, only 33 percent of applicants were claiming mental illness, but that figure has jumped to 43 percent, says Rutledge, citing preliminary results from his latest research. …
That last statistic is remarkable: a quarter of those who are dropping out of the job market, and hence out of the unemployment statistics, are going on disability instead. Disability, unlike unemployment benefits, will most likely go on forever.
I worked as a consultant doing disability mental evaluations for over 15 years (I no longer do) and one thing I can say is that claimants would often come in and claim mental stress if they just felt “worn out from working.” A nurse came in once and said that she just “couldn’t take it anymore” and was applying. She didn’t understand that just saying you’ve “had it,” didn’t qualify one for Social Security disability. However, the rules change and perhaps with the Obama economy, having “had it” is enough to qualify for some type of mental illness, especially given the jump in the awards of benefits for mental reasons since the recession. Maybe this is the new way the Obama administration is trying to “spread the wealth around” in a way that the average American will not notice. And it brings the unemployment rate down at the same time. A real win-win for the administration.
Yes, it is the “New Normal.” From my experiences working within the Social Services, I can say that about every other Client I have dealt with wants the “magic SSDI check.” The shelter my current employers run is chock-full of otherwise functional twenty-somethings, all of whom are “homeless” for the sole purpose of gaining compensation.
Disclaimer: I am a disabled veteran, yet have always worked.
I knew a guy who was a heroin addict who got paid with this every month cuz he was “depressed.” My own brother, a career criminal who got tired of that due to prison sentences then became addicted to pain killers and just started getting it for a phony back injury.
These slackabouts are tarnishing the good name of us genuine lunatics.
And you are only addressing the adult claimants here. Over 20 years ago, “60 Minutes” did a segment on the children receiving SSDI. They told a story of one single mom who had six kids for whom she was a check of $600/mo each. Their “disability”? They were disruptive in school, a precursor to the ADD/ADHD fraud that is now also running rampant as the new “epidemic”. They also said that in many cases, the kids were coached to be disruptive by their parents in order to qualify for the payments.
So there’s a double whammy on society – the monetary drain for fake “disabilities” and a burden in the school systems from the fakers.
Dr Smith, you’re a psychologist. I’ve heard your profession is overrun by leftists. Why exactly was narcissism dropped as a pathology, conveniently just after the election of our Narcissist-in-Chief?
There’s the flipside of that – that children who were medicated with speed may eventually grow up to have actual disorders and are now functionally screwed.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to let my parents have the state force me onto harmful drugs that have destroyed my ability to cope with other people in every capacity.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to get bit by a tick and have a bunch of incompetents at the university health center pishaw my piling up health complaints and am now mostly crippled and have the body of a 70 year old arthritic.
Sorry for following the USDA nutritional guidlines and blowing up to the size of a f—— boulder.
Sorry about all that. It’s my fault. Not the state. Not the people who represent… why, all of you.
Jerks.
Regarding “medicated with speed may eventually”.
“MAY”, may? They certainly as in “CERTAINLY” will become brain damaged from long term exposure.
I can’t believe you are even smart enough to read a food label, let alone follow all of the USDA food guidelines. You can’t blame your fat on anyone but you!
As far back as the ’70s, I thought most mental SSI claims were bogus – we knew a brilliant, but eccentric and a bit erratic woman who had supported herself (quite comfortably, most of the time) but who was persuaded by some well-meaning social worker to go onto SSI. Not that the woman wasn’t odd, even very odd, but she was capable of providing for herself, and her friends kept her engaged and reasonably stable. Once she began receiving SSI disability payments, she became more withdrawn and less engaged. It did not end well.
One of the great tragedies of the early 1980s was that the Reagan Administration believed that there were many fraudulent claims of mental disability, and went after them with a vengeance. I know that they were right: I knew a number of people who were milking the disability system because of supposed mental problems that prevented them from working–but they were working off the books while collecting SSDI checks.
But there were (and are) a lot of mentally ill people collecting SSDI, too. And guess who was best able to game to system when their disability claims were challenged? The ones who were smart, and not interested in working. The ones who were psychotic? Not very successful at all in dealing with SSA. Because so many mental hospitals had been closed in the interest of due process and more humane treatment, there were suddenly lots of severely mentally ill people living in homeless shelters, on steam grates, and eating out of garbage cans.
The problem was real, but bureaucratic solutions disproportionately knocked the ones off SSDI who were genuinely disabled.
The surge in disability claims isn’t an accident just like the surge in food stamps wasn’t. Ag secretary Vilsack is on the record that they have aggressively promoted the food stamp program trying to sign up as many people as possible. They are doing the same thing with disability. What other choice do they have? No, pro growth economic policies is not an option for this administration.
Dr. Smith: are the people getting benefits for mental disability prohibited from ownership of guns? Will this showup during a background investigation ?
No, as far as my knowlege is concerned, I believe that those on SSD or SSI can own guns. I think the only way for those with mental illness to be rejected from gun ownership would be a criminal record, or domestic violence etc.
There may not be a Federal prohibition to firearms ownership due to impaired mental capacity, but there certainly could be at the State level.
Due diligence is in order.
GCA68 prohibits gun ownership by anyone who “has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution;” but commitment means not an observational hold, but long-term commitment (which is relatively rare these days, and not at all likely for someone going on disability to get a check).
Hey, do they lose their right to vote?
You’re kidding, right? Not only do they retain the right to vote, they get to vote multiple times to make up for voters who are totally disabled (i.e. dead).
Once upon a time, in most states, long-term commitment meant that you were considered legally incompetent. In a few states, it creates a presumption in that favor. You could not drive, make contracts, or about a zillion other things. Probably including voting.
Just a thought but with the attitude of this administration toward guns, wouldn’t gun ownership prove mental instability to them? Hence, eligibility for mental SSDI?
When I had trouble doing my last couple of jobs due to knee pain I finally broke down and went to the VA. They determined both my knees were bad enough that I rate 20% disability in both knees for a total of 40% disability. Since I have reached 62 years of age, I decided to just apply for Social Security. At the same time I also applied for SSDI. Though I took the paperwork from the VA showing problems in both knees, when I was examined for SSDI they only had their doctor xray one knee. Both I and the doctor thought, at the time this was strange, he couldn’t do any more than what they had ordered. I later got a reply that I didn’t fit their definition of disabled and that I could probably do one of my old jobs as I had described it in the application. The job they thought I would still be able to do was Armed Security work from over ten years ago. I guess I didn’t describe the work well enough since I told them I have pain when walking or climbing steps, bending, or kneeling plus I am now on pain meds That would most likely keep me from getting another Armed Guard Lic. The job I had involved building security which involved moving around in a three story building checking the two stairwells as well as the parking area and outside perimeter of the building. I have not yet filed an appeal but will shortly.
They can posess a weapon legally and be disabled, including mental illnesses. it depends on the severity of the case. You must be declared incompetent in order to be forbidden. I don’t know about handguns, however.
I’m sure their is a beuracrat somewhere that wouldn’t mind a document being drawn up forbidding them fron ownership.
There’s where the conspiracy fun starts. Med them up early on, have them well documented to have psych issues, control them with meds that do more damage, have THAT fallout catch up to them, then pass laws forbidding anyone with mental illness present at any point in time from ownership.
Look at Fast and Furious, you can’t possibly dismiss that as paranoid. Same insane goals. Same callous methods.
This angers me on several levels. First as a taxpayer I’m pissed at supporting deadbeats with fake disabilities. Second, I’m the brother of a geniunely disabled man who refuses to apply for SSDI. My oldest brother (who celebrates his 16th birthday later this month) had a cyst form on his spinal cord over 10 years ago. The cyst caused him to lose most of the use of his arms and hands. As a mechanic, that made it difficult for him to work but he managed to find jobs he could do. He certainly qualifies as disabled but won’t apply for it, yet we have perhaps millions of freeloaders sponging off of the rest of us.
Larry J,
Something is wrong with your numbers. You brother just turned 16, had a surgery 10 years ago that ruined his mechanics career? I know it’s just a typo and you must have meant 61 but it really plays out strangely
I dunno, it is February and leap year. He could be born on the 29th (hence 64 years).
Disability is now the welfare system.
And that isn’t meant to denigrate the 10% of recipients who actually are disabled.
I wonder what the economics are. How much does one get in unemployment per month vs SSI disability?
SSI is not SSDI. SSDI is the disability insurance payment paid out of Social Security taxes (in theory); SSI is a program for people with limited income who are aged, blind, or disabled, and which provides some additional funding, and comes out of general tax revenues.
The last Social Security statement I received indicated that if I retired on disability right now, I would receive about $1950 a month from SSDI. (Not that there is any danger of that.) If I retire at age 65, I will get about $1500 a month from Social Security. For people who have exhausted unemployment benefits, and are over age 50, especially if they do something that we don’t do in America anymore (like software engineering), I can see why the temptation could be strong.
Those black Skilcraft US Government pens they use at federal offices–like the Social Security Administration–are assembled by blind people in Wisconsin. Ironic.
The other thing is many relatively able-bodied people collecting SSDI use it to supplement their cash income from home-based retail businesses, freelancing, contract work under the table, etc. Too “disabled” to work, but not too disabled to trim trees for cash.
An associate of mine, who has held several manager level jobs in the past, got approved for disability after claiming Asperger’s. Not sure at what level he was diagnosed. At age 40+, he is rather anti-social and withdrawn, but past performance shows that he can and has held down jobs before.
Asperger’s is a disorder (like others) graded on “a spectrum”. The spectrum was probably designed to accomodate as opposed to discriminate. This type of grading has been implicated in the increased diagnosis of the related disorder of autism. There are folks receiving SSI for “autistic like behavior”. It’s all a bit fuzzy, especially for folks considered higher functioning or borderline within the category. Some have observed traits of Bill Gates and thought him to have “autistic like behavior”. One has to wonder about incentives to either get or give the diagnosis.
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
There are so many behavioral ticks with it. So many triggers. I’m agoraphobic. I become so stressed out I begin to twitch in crowds. I look like a seizure victim.
Social Security Administration estimated DI benefits for 2010 at 0.85% of GDP (2011 stats not yet available) – compared to about 0.55% average for the years 1998-2000.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/chartbooks/fast_facts/2011/fast_facts11.html
Considering a nominal GDP of $15 trillion for 2011, a 0.3% increase to DI benefits translates to an additional payout of $45 billion per year.
As a career law clerk, my wife is the last appeal for SSDI applicants. Her disability case workload has soared since the recession. By the time it’s reached her the case has been rejected by the SSA, the SSA review process and an ALJ. As one can imagine the facts of these cases rarely have any bearing on whether one can do a job, but that doesn’t seem to enter into the equation anymore. It’s terribly depressing to imagine how many cases of the same caliber are approved. And if I’m depressed, I probably qualify for SSDI.
Whether disability is too easy to get for mental illness or if the uptick in disability determinations is due to same are separate issues, perhaps. A surge in disability has been expected for a long time due to the baby boomer bulge. Many more people are getting older and unable to do physical labor after they are 55 but before early retirement age of 62. There is a reason you do not see elderly carpenters, plumbers, masons, laborers a lot- they wear out.
Mental illness can be like back pain claims,hard to verify. If the client is convincing enough even the best diagnostician can be fooled. And with 50 million potential claimants the system will ,by force of staffing alone,allow many to slide through uninvestigated thouroghly. The system wins again.
Need a job, go into healthcare administration,Now!
This pisses me off. I have a triple bypass, diabetes, and a major stroke, (the right side of my body is messed up) , and I still want to work. Hell, I managed to work the Republican County Treasurer (elected) position from a wheelchair right up until six months ago. Before I was retired, forcibly, by the county Republicans,
.
One problem is that many people are genuinely suffering serious depression because they have been out of work for a year or more. If you are over 50, your chances of ever getting a job are remote.
I’m sure that many of these claims are bogus, but I suspect that more than a few people are saying, “I was 5-10 years away from collecting a Social Security check anyway; I will never be able to get a job again. What practical difference does it make if I start collecting disability instead?” It’s not right, but when a whole society grows up around saying that right and wrong are culturally relative, why wouldn’t it be tempting?
Eighteen comments, and nobody has mentioned the Cloward-Piven strategy yet. To force the transition from welfare-state capitalism to true socialism, you encourage as many people as possible to jump into all corners of the safety net. The overload causes failure, leading to crisis, and then revolution. It’s a shame about all the folks in the net when it rips…
When the end is near, and it’s getting nearer, keep a 6-pack and half a chicken in readiness so as to watch the collapse. (Lawn chair, optional. Firearm, necessary).
Although much has been made about the contraception mandate’s intrusion onto religion, turning voluntary sex into the equivalent of an affliction is a nice baby step towards destabilizing private insurance so that the complete takeover will be necessary. After all, once coverage of the pill etc is mandated to be no copay, the “fair” thing is for all actual affliction remedies to be no copay. Insurance will then rise until it’s obvious those lousy companies need to be replaced by a more complete government takeover where efficiencies and compassion will prevail.
I used to think that only the deserving disabled got SS disability checks. Then Stanley Thornton, the adult diaper wearing ‘baby’ won his appeal to keep getting disability payments, and suddenly I’m no longer sure I’m not a chump.
“And it brings the unemployment rate down at the same time. A real win-win for the administration.”
Most important, it creates a permanent class of people with a vested interest in the transfer economy, who will reliably vote for those who will enforce perpetual transfers.
One big factor in the Social Security Disability increase is the number of over-fifty years old workers being shoved out of their jobs.
If you are over fifty, your chances of getting a job are virtually non-existent. So when the unemployment benefits run out what can you do?
True, they’re really not disabled. But they are involuntarily retired. And at least they have paid into Social Security for thirty or more years. So they have some claim to it even if they are not really disabled.
What is the alternative? Suicide?
It is a real problem. Fortunately I found a government job, because software engineers over 50 (and increasingly, over 40) are simply unemployable. The people doing the hiring are in their 30s, and can’t imagine that those of us who have been developing software since they were in diapers could POSSIBLY know how to do anything useful.
One thought… In a booming, high-employment economy, employees are relatively scarce, so employers are willing to go out of their way to hire a disabled person and figure out even unreasonable accommodations if it is the only way to get the job done. Related, there are long-time employees of companies who have become disabled over time, and keep their jobs because their experience and company-specific knowledge are valuable to their employers who figure things out. When such a company succumbs to the Obamaconomy, then those people are out and may well find it impossible to find another job.
So “disabled and cannot work” is not an absolute state of the person, but is a function of the health of the economy, too. Just another example of that hopey changey stuff working out so well…
I have been seeing a lot of this in my practice- long-term, older employees whose shortcomings and less than ideal attendance and output were accommodated by their employer. When they lost their job they really could not do past relevant work. BTW- in my experience one cannot usually claim a back injury without objective findings from MRI showing displacement of the spinal cord or nerve roots.
Isn’t this only going to hasten the inevitable fall of Social Security?
More Cloward Piven!? More of this!? This is in and of itself enough to drive an honest man genuinely insane.
—-
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
—-
The Gods of the Copybook Headings must surely be face palming themselves at record rates…
…or just silently watching…
Here’s my personal experience with disability-as-unemployment.
I have a friend who is very intelligent, but socially inept in many ways. I personally feel like he could contribute to our society, but instead what he does is collect a check from the government under SSDI. Aside from a brief stint working at a McDonalds 15 years ago, he has never worked a day in his life due to being unable to deal with (and unwilling to acclimate himself to) social pressures like having a boss, doing a job, and doing things other than your immediate desires.
Is this person disabled? In some ways yes. Is that disability part of a specific condition he has? Yes. But he also collects more in Social Security than I earn at a job, and pays no taxes. Under the right conditions he certainly COULD work, but our society sees no need to try and cultivate this highly intelligent guy. Instead he’s a dead weight on everyone.
If he only worked a brief stint at McDonald’s, he isn’t drawing that much. He has to have paid in enough quarters to become insured in the first place, which a brief stint at McDonald’s will not do. He may be getting SSI or a combination of SSI and SSDI. If so, his maximum is around $700/mo. I hope you earn more than this.
@TennPunk: I earn about 10k per year working a shitty and exploitative job. I have been actively looking for another job for the past 3 years, but apparently 140 IQ and a Computer Science degree from one of the top-15 schools in the US doesn’t qualify one for entry level IT/programming jobs in this area.
But at least 2k of my income will go directly towards expenses (e.g. gas, car maintenance). So no, I’m not earning more than him.
This person you’re talking about, the guy who had a stint at McDonalds. It sounds like you’re describing me. I mean, I have had the same kind of life as him in some ways, at least as I can gather from this description.
I am 30 years old, and have tried time and time again to work. In my fifteen or so years of employability I have had approximately 20 jobs, which is obvious a big difference than your friend. But maybe the only real difference is that he knew he’d keep failing so stopped trying. After my 20 or so jobs, I am now to the point where I don’t know how I can bring myself to keep trying. I am struggling through school, trying to figure myself out and to find a way to fit into society; but honestly, I feel like an alien here on planet Earth.
This is a weird request, but I wonder if you could arrange communication between myself and your friend. It is a long shot, but maybe we can help each other out.
Sad that people will settle for that joke of a check and spend half their time worried it will be taken away.
It’s all part of the Obama plan: crete more government dependents. You can bet that the SSA will be pressed to grant more disability claims, and that “the mean Republicans wil be wanting to take your disability payments away from you!”
I recently was approved for disability. My disability is depression.
I won’t bother to argue whether depression qualifies as a “disability”, or whether it’s just laziness, or (perhaps the most nonsensical argument) whether it’s merely “all in their heads”. I won’t bother with those who think all mental illnesses (including depression) are either mythical, or some sort of scam. I will only note in passing that approval for SSDI requires that there be a medical record to verify the existence of the disability; that there is a 3+ year wait between initial application and approval during which applicants generally have ZERO income; and that once approved, the disability recipient will be lucky to receive more than $1000 per month (i.e. an annual salary of $12,000).
However, to enlighten those who think that I’m participating in Cloward-Piven, or defrauding the government, or, at best, playing the system; I support the TOTAL ELIMINATION OF THE DISABILITY SYSTEM.
I also support the total elimination of Welfare. I also support the total elimination of Unemployment “insurance”.
Two questions for those of you who denigrate the mentally ill as undeserving of disability: “Is there some disability which warrants receiving government assistance under SSDI?”; “If so, why?”
Welfare, Disability, AND Unemployment are all THEFT. They are NOT “insurance” and they are NOT “charity”. They are means to REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH and they have NEVER BEEN ANYTHING ELSE.
Moreover, Social Security is also redistributive THEFT. That is, the money received (or expected to be received) by those over 65 years of age. The argument that they have paid in, and so deserve to be paid back is a FALSE ARGUMENT. This is because the money paid in was simply STOLEN. Thus making the argument that one deserves to be “paid back” the moral equivalent of robbing one’s neighbor in order to replace things stolen the night before by a random, unknown, uncatchable burglar.
If YOU are among those who are (or expect to be) receiving money that you paid in and therefore “deserve” back; you should first recognize that what you feel you “deserve” is, in fact, STOLEN WEALTH. That is, taken from another person today, because the money you “paid in” two years ago was stolen last year. In addition, you might wish to recognize that those from whom you are stealing (by government proxy) are YOUR children and grandchildren. And that by accepting social security payments, you are STEALING from your own progeny what they could be using to prepare for their own retirements — and you are doing so because you FAILED to prepare for your own retirement by placing unfounded trust in the world’s most adept con-men and Ponzi-schemers.
So, ultimately, I AM stealing from you — even though my disability is indeed legitimate. I am CONSTRAINED to do so because I live in a country and society based on redistributive theft that has by necessity displaced actual charity. That is, the existence of SSDI makes unworkable other ACTUAL charities that I might approach for what I now, instead, receive as “stolen goods” from the government.
IF …. IF, you wish to admit this truth and push for the abolition of ALL Disability, ALL Welfare, and ALL Social Security “retirement” payments; then I will join you — even though it is ostensibly “against my own interest”.
If, however, you have ever received unemployment payments rather than putting aside for yourself a “rainy day” fund; or,
if you currently receive any Social Security “retirement” payments; or,
ESPECIALLY if you plan to receive Social Security “retirement” payments in the future despite the fact that to do so IS THEFT, is immoral, is crippling your own offspring, and is bankrupting this nation; and,
you still feel righteous enough to denigrate those who are on disability because of mental illness — well, then, ……….
go to Hell, do not collect good works to save your soul, go DIRECTLY to Hell.
Thank you.
Oddly enough, I’m similar in regards to your part that while I’m on it, I wish it didn’t exist as such. I think it needs to be policed better because there are people who really need help. I don’t see that so much as theft that I want my tax money better spent, and yes, I pay taxes.It conveniently is also one of the few ways to discharge student loans, so I think that whole system needs overhaul so you don’t have desperate people trying to use SSD as an only escape from student loan debt in a horrible depression.
I think a lot of people are trying to game the system, it happens to desperate people. It happens to lazy people. but there are real people who actually need help, and you do not want them without help, they will cause far more problems than this measly check will help them do.
Personally, I’ve offered several times to work for the government as an auditor. I can work a calculator, and I have a vested interest in the continuation and thriving of the country as a whole, and it seems to me that government needs not so much to be tenderly parted from it’s finances as much as the finality of placing the vaccum of space between it and taxpayer money.
…and maybe by the time this mess is sorted out they’ll figure a cure for what ails me and I can go back to working 2 jobs and going to school like I’ve done my whole life until the beginning of the Obamanation.
“It conveniently is also one of the few ways to discharge student loans”
“maybe by the time this mess is sorted out they’ll figure a cure for what ails me and I can go back to working 2 jobs and going to school ”
Wow. That adds another layer to the incentives.
Does it work such that the disability wipes the slate clean but allows one to “heal” and return to what they were doing before? And without the lingering penalties of a bankruptcy or asset spend down required in medicaid.
I have a real disability. You are part of the problem. If your mind is so messed up that you can’t work, even by yourself, then you need to be put in an institution. Preferably in a cage. And I’m fairly liberal on this issue compared to my other disabled friends. They would do far, far, worse.
Yeah, Holy sh*t, Reading that original post off the painkillers suddenly made it much more repulsive. I was just going for logic regarding financial incentives and disincentives so the system remains soluble and equitable.
SockPuppet,
I guess it’s no surprise that you’re now siding with “Jackalope: the escapee from Nuremburg justice”.
You are on disability, though you claim (admit) that you can work.
You say: “a lot of people are trying to game the system, it happens to desperate people. It happens to lazy people.”
So which are you?
You also say that “It conveniently is also one of the few ways to discharge student loans, …. desperate people [are] trying to use SSD as an only escape from student loan debt in a horrible depression.”
Then follow it by acknowledging that the “desperate” person who is “gaming the system” is YOU. {“working 2 jobs and GOING TO SCHOOL … until the beginning of the Obamanation”}
Yes, Jackalope, I am the problem. And you have the solution … the FINAL Solution.
You’re not the first to think of it; nor will you be the last.
It does seem odd, though, that you and your crippled friends forget or dismiss the reality that such “final solutions” usually get around to the PHYSICALLY handicapped as well. And, pretty quickly, I might add.
Precrime like in the Minority Report movie. They haven’t committed a crime , but they will, because you can see the future. That is insane. A person has to commit a crime first, before they lose their freedom or civil rights.
Depression is a real disability (although there are people who fake it, because it is impossible to objectively measure). The difficulty is that some people suffering from depression can be cured, and some cannot. Those whose depression is fundamentally biochemical in origin can take antidepressants, but those are two-edged knives–powerful, but with powerful and sometimes dangerous side effects.
Those who depression is fundamentally derived from the situation they are in can take antidepressants for years and get very little benefit from them. If the situation causing your depression is that no one is hiring (as is the case for people over 50), the only real solution is a robust and vigorous economy. That requires a house cleaning, not just in the White House, but in Congress.
Oh, and, by the way, this “statistic” (upon which all three articles appear to be based):
“Mental-illness claims, in particular, are surging. During the recent economic boom, only 33 percent of applicants were claiming mental illness, but that figure has jumped to 43 percent, says Rutledge, citing preliminary results from his latest research.”
is a BOGUS statistic.
It presents an increase in the PORTION of total applications which claim mental illness, but DOES NOT present the TOTAL APPLICATIONS. Thus, making the percentage meaningless as it bears no relation to the actual NUMBER of applications claiming mental illness.
I may be crazy; but, I’m not …. well, let’s just leave it at that.
This REALLY makes me mad because I do have a mental illness. I have been agoraphobic and prone to panic attacks since my teens. My wife has to drive me anywhere I want to go. But despite all of that I created a business that has employed several hundred people over the course of its 15 years of existence. For my employees it has put food on the table and kids through school. And I did this all within about a mile of my own home as that is as far as I can travel.
All it took was risking everything I owned and working non-stop for several years. With this in mind I have hired deaf people, ex-cons, people with substance problems and people who are literally retarded. All of them had something they could do and if they behaved they could draw a paycheck. If someone showed up at my shop door looking for work then most often I would put them to work. This is something small businesses can do that larger ones can’t.
But the shocking thing is that as bad as the unemployment situation is now no one comes by looking for work anymore. I used to have one or two people a week when Bush was president… now there are maybe one or two a year.
No one is out there pounding the pavement anymore.
I commend and admire you for what you’ve done. If you care to say, and don’t feel it’s too personal for a blog (I would understand that), what do you think caused your drive to succeed and be (more than) a contributor in spite of your condition? Is it an outgrowth of your childhood upbringing, was religion a factor, or was there an inspiring figure, or something else?
I have Aspergers and Depression and have been on SSDI since 1995….I have GONE to the Social Security Office and ASKED them numerous times if they would stop sending benefits to me because I have been actively looking for work and going to school while raising an autistic son with mild mental challenges. I took time off from school just to help with him because he has been violent numerous times. They said that they HAD to send me the money because it is the law. If you have any work that I can do, I would gladly do it to get the SSA and the Federal Government out of my life.Let me know please through this blog post.
I am a Social Security claims representative. The stories my co-workers and I could tell you would blow your mind. Suffice to say – of the 5 workdays in the week, 4 of our days are scheduled for disability applicants.
Too funny… but there are hard and fast rules with high bars for people with actual medical issues… and even when you meet them you still usually have to have an attorney push the issue with social security…. Typical. Going easy on people who don’t deserve it while denying benefits to the people the program was meant to protect.
My question is whether acceptance to SSDI has become easier since Oblama. It used to be that only 1/10 got accepted first try. What’s it like now?
I remember a coworker’s girlfriend that was on disability and mowed her friends’ lawns for free. I also know someone on disability because of lung cancer due to smoking. I personally think they should be randomly audited for any mysterious improvement.
I considered disability instead of retirement because 1. No tax 2. More money.
My integrity was more important to me. However I know people who work the system when they retire from work because of the tax savings. There is nothing that the government can’t make worse. My brother had schizophrenia with delusions and we had a very hard time getting him on SSDI but I know a right wing conservative who gets SSDI and runs a cash business without taxes. All of those examples occurred before this president but I agree it is getting worse.