The new meme for the right wing echo chamber: Record 10,978,040 Now on Disability; ‘Disability’ Would Be 8th Most Populous State.
This just in: The number of people living in the United States who have ever been diagnosed with "cancer" is 19 million which would be the 5th most populous state, well ahead of the "Social Security disability state."
17 comments:
How about the more than 50 million Americans living in poverty? Or the 3 million Americans, including 1.3 million children, who experience homlessness every year? Those who are attacking the disability safety net should remember, "There but for the grace of God ... "
And as far as the far right loonies are concerned, their holier than thou...
Staunch Democrat here.
But I still find it hard to believe that there are so many people "disabled." While I support taxation for worthy causes, I do agree with the general sentiment of these republican ideas that there are many people taking advantage of Social Security benefits that shouldn't be.
Does that mean I am not compassionate...of course not. But if we are going to give out welfare, let's call a spade a spade. Disguising welfare as SS is not a good idea.
Funny how the right-wing fringe element and their carnival-barker media outlets that supply their daily meat, never, ever mention how many of those going onto SSDI got there from their screwed-up wars in the Middle-East; and dangerous, arduous military service in general.
Those of us that served and got injured paid into Social Security just like every other job. Therefore we qualify to take it.
Very unfitting headline and news article from this slime the day after the Memorial Day weekend.
@2:26. From your last sentence, it seems like you are trying to imply that anything that may be taken as a slight against the military should not occur on or around Memorial Day.
First, I'd like to point out that Memorial Day is a day to remember the people that have DIED while serving in the armed forces.
Second, I didn't see anything in the article that was particularly aimed at veteran's.
Third, criticism of a political idea or policy should be allowed at any time. That's the idea behind free speech.
The number of people with cancer may equate to the 5th most populous state, but all of these people actually have cancer.
A not insignficant number of those labeled "disabled" are not actually disabled, but simply are "old" (which means 50 or older) and are deemed incapable of working despite being capable of performing sedentary or even light work. And don't forget the people engaging in SGA while collecting DIB/SSI because SSA has not caught them yet.
Therefore, your mocking comparison is apples and oranges.
And I'm sure that if disability was a state it would elect more intelligent members of Congress than the ones being elected by the real states.
Those people who qualify because of the grid rules are not merely "old", they also have little education and have performed only unskilled work all their lives. You folks who are so against use of the grid fail to mention that.
And because they have little education and have performed only unskilled work all of their lives makes them special, how??
Anon 5:28
Your question is a good one and it has answers. Study the research that went into formulating the grids. There's enough convincing evidence there that 50+ yr. olds who are physically weaker (e.g. limited to sedentary), with little education and no work skills, will with few exceptions, not be able to handle competitive employment outside of sedentary work that they are familiar with, have done before. Much too much there to cover in a blog post, but check it out and you will see.
I don't mind allowing the 50 year old with a sedentary RFC, limited education, and unskilled past work. However, what about the 55 year old with a light RFC, high school or more (to include college degree), and past work that is skilled or semi-skilled, but not transferable? Should we really allow these people just because they cannot do their past work? We do under grid rule 202.06. Bottom line: these vocational rules need to be revised. 55 should NOT be considered "advanced age."
Man, you all aren't too familiar with the grids. Other factors besides age are significant? I think not.
I work in ODAR, and I see people gridding all the time. Let me clue you in to a little secret--being 50 and limited to sedentary is basically it. The educational and vocational factors you point to that prevent more educated/skilled people from gridding? They never come into play. First, acquired work skills almost never transfer or "provide for direct entry" (not to mention writing a decision with enough evidence to underlie transferrable skills finding is so often impossible). Second, go look at those grids and tell me how often education level makes a difference (besides illiteracy). Spoiler Alert: rarely.
I concede that education rarely makes a difference. My point is that many educated 55 year olds with a light RFC are being allowed. Most of these people could find light work.
In the non-ODAR world (yes, many claims are adjudicated at the initial & recon level) we provide significant training on how to assess past work and determine transferability of skills. Just because it doesn't happen at ODAR doesn't mean it is impossible.
@ 3:53
I'm going to write this as nicely as I can because I really don't mean to disparage you and the work DDS does.
Making transferrable skills and PRW decisions may seem easy at first, but those decisions are rife with problems and deficiencies that make them very low hanging fruit for appeals. Ok, so you have a claimant's work history. Your voc expert says that work is best classified as whatever DOT code occupation. But how much info did that person have to make that decision? One sheet, a brief phone conversation where the claimant said he was a "cashier" for a while?
What about the claimant who worked one "job" that had multiple job duties--worked as a cashier some, stocker some, etc. How can you be sure he did the cashier job duties enough for cashier to be properly considered PRW?
Transferrable skills and PRW decisions are so complex, one has to have enormous amounts of detailed information to make such a decision and be sure it is sufficiently grounded and safe from appeal.
It is not that we at ODAR don't make transferrable skill or PRW decisions because we are lazy or something, it's because we know how tenuous those findings are since most every file lacks the requisite detail to feel good about hanging our hat on that finding.
As for the numbers showing more disability now -- that needs to be put into perspective. What's our country's total population now compared with 20 years ago? What's the number of workers, broken out by age?
One statistic by itself tells us very little.
People older than 50 tend to not be hired when there are lots of younger people to pick from.
'Light jobs some could do' may not exist in reality and stamp licking at home as a light job is as the police say: a scam...
Not all disabilities are visible, yet some would say, if one can do this or do that, their not disabled, funny I didn't know these critics were Doctors with a Medical Degree and a License to practice medicine, practicing medicine without a medical license is a crime in all 50 states, without exception.
oh 8:17...
here are just a few thoughts:
1) "Disability" is not a medical finding. Whether it's for insurance purposes, workplace purposes, the VA, or SSA, disability is a term of art defined variously by different outfits for their different purposes. Physicians can offer their expert medical opinions about a person's impairments, functioning, etc., but are not well equipped to determine who is or isn't disabled insofar as SSA, the VA, your LTD carrier, etc. are concerned. Unless that doc knows the regs/rules/etc. defining disability for whatever program is involved, he or she is not nearly the best person to decide disability.
2) *they're
3) The whole point of the Regs' reliance on VEs, the DOT, census data, etc. is to ensure that jobs SSA says you can do at Step 5 actually do exist (except for the case of step 4 past relevant work decisions--we'll put you back to elevator operator work even though that doesn't really exist anymore ;)).
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