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Feb 20, 2012

Disability Claims Increase

    From the Rupert Murdock owned New York Post:
Standing too many months on the unemployment line is driving Americans crazy — literally — and it’s costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
With their unemployment-insurance checks running out, some of the country’s long-term jobless are scrambling to fill the gap by filing claims for mental illness and other disabilities with Social Security — a surge that hobbles taxpayers and making the employment rate look healthier than it should as these people drop out of the job statistics.
“It could be because their health really is getting worse from the stress of being out of work,” says Matthew Rutledge, a research economist at Boston College. “Or it could just be desperation — people trying to make ends meet when other safety nets just aren’t there." ...
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.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:23 PM, February 20, 2012

    There could be another factor in the increase in the number of mental health claims. The regulations that prohibit payment to individuals with drug addiction or alchoholism as a primary diagnosis. Nothing changed but the labels.

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  2. Anonymous7:47 AM, February 21, 2012

    It's time that SSA starts to learn how to differentiate from clinical depression and feelings of depression due to life situation. They both suck...but only one is "disabling." Situational and financial stress that causes depression has an easy fix...find a job.

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  3. Anonymous8:30 AM, February 21, 2012

    Agreed #1 & #2.

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  4. Anonymous9:04 PM, February 21, 2012

    Obviously, the three prior posters have never been without a job, with no hope of a paycheck on the horizon due to global economic forces beyond their control.

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  5. Anonymous9:56 AM, February 22, 2012

    @ anon at 9:04...I made post #2. I have been unemployed (more than 12 months). Here's what I did. Went to college and began working on my degree. Novel, I know, but it worked. Here's the thing. The government will essentially pay you to go to college. Time for some of these people to get off the couch and earn a living.

    ReplyDelete