From
West Virginia Metro News:
... Republican Congressman Jim Lankford (OK-5) said it will take years to fully implement the kinds of reforms [Social Security ] needs — especially when it comes to disability benefits. ...
Lankford — who met with the new Social Security leadership this week — serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements for the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In June, that committee released a report entitled “Systemic Waste and Abuse at the Social Security Administration.” ...
Overall, Lankford said the definition of “disabled” has become subjective. “It should be a very clear cut thing. The definition of when you get Social Security disability is when you’re unable, due to medical reasons, unable to do any job in the economy. That’s a very clear definition — any job in the economy.” ...
Sounds like the congressman is restating the SSA definition, but has never had to determine an RFC for what someone is 'able to do due to medical reasons'.
ReplyDeleteI'm a person with a disability.
ReplyDeleteSSA stating what a person can do during the course of one single day,based on medical evidence, would be easy.
The problem is,in the real world,a person must have an ability to work every day required, at least to 62 years of age(early retirement).
So yes,it has some subjectiveness.
Please correct me if i'm wrong.
Sure there are jobs the disabled can perform but those jobs are limited in number. For example, there are only 100 US Senators and 435 members of the House of representatives.
ReplyDelete2:52 Now THAT is funny!
ReplyDelete"unable to do any job in the economy"
ReplyDeletethis is one of the many things that needs to be changed about the disability program. Abandon the GRID rules which were nonsensical when implemented, and are now even worse. A 50 y/o limited to sedentary RFC should NOT be disabled by some arbitrary SSA rule. There are millions of jobs where you can just sit all day long.
The definition of disability was arrived at like all of our other laws - through Congress and signed by the President - and they decided not to adopt Lankford's definition. It has stayed that way for decades despite all the changes in political power over those years. It's one indication that ours is a compassionate, rationale society (countering other signs that it isn't). Lankford is uninformed and vastly outnumbered. His comments are just spume from a blowhole.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that both law and practice of "disability" are far from reality and make (largely) no sense whatsoever. But we all keep quiet because we all get a piece of pie - ALJs, reps, claimants... Sure, Grids are the most ridiculous fiction there is and something that leads to most of allowances by ALJs. But as long as there are in the books, so to speak, we must enforce them. We have no place for personal opinions or ideologies about it. It's hard but there's no other way. But, yes, the current definition and the way we reach "decisions" are an "instituionalized" joke.
ReplyDelete@ 12:16
ReplyDeletethere sure are, but the vast majority are skilled (ask vocational experts about the number of unskilled sedentary jobs out there and which direction their numbers are going). At Step 5 (we would have already put you to PRW or transferred your skills to another semi-skilled or skilled jobs at Step 4) we can only put claimants to unskilled work.
But thanks for playing.
However many of those "skilled" jobs are based on "skills" that most Americans had to go to school for or have extra training for 20 years ago and now routinely possess because they own a computer, tablet, or smartphone or some combination thereof.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah as long as the agency relies on antique data, those are skilled jobs.
What does it matter anyway? If an examiner or ALJ wants to deny a claim, he'll find a way to do it.
ReplyDelete12:08
ReplyDeleteYour own statements indicate that the skills at issue are skills that required a lot of schooling years ago (i.e., when the 50+ year olds having the Grids applied to them today would have normally gotten said schooling), but are skills that are acquired basically by growing up in these past few decades and being surrounded by all that technology since birth/a young age.
Those 50+'ers aren't kids growing up with those things! While some may be skilled with them, it's a pretty much universal truth that people who grew up with a technology ubiquitous in their lives will have much, much more skill using it than older folks who are introduced to the technology later in life.
Do you even think while you write? Are you trolling? Your own statements tend to prove the opposite of your thesis...
5:16 PM I appreciate your bringing thoughtful discussion by attacking and claiming trolling.
ReplyDeleteMy 82 year old father was in his late 60's before he used a computer and has had a smartphone for less than 5 years (has had a cell phone less than 10) and he has acquired all the "skills" the DOT claims he needs for a large number of sedentary jobs simply because he likes reading about his favorite pro team online.
Our local charitable hospital is swarmed with senior citizen volunteers. The director of volunteer services says the biggest surprise they have had is that these old people can be trained in less than a day to operate the phone system and access the computer system to give out room numbers, locate doctors and nurses and such.
I can go to the grocery store or Lowes and see senior citizens using the point of sale systems any day either working there or self-check-out.
The DOT does not recognize that the typical computer interface today is point and click or look and touch. It still presumes anyone using a computer needs to be able to do things from the command line or learn complicated keyboard combinations to use the software.
It appears that Lankford doesn't even know the standard for DIB or SSI, which is unable to work for at least 12 consecutive months. Lankford believes, erroneously, it's permanent.
ReplyDelete“People lose track of the fact that Social Security disability is one of the trust funds that’s sitting out there. Everybody that’s working has a part of their paycheck pulled out to be able to set aside money in case they’re ever disabled permanently,” Lankford said on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Wow they are still waving that de-bunked "Systemic Waste" report around?
ReplyDeleteIt always scares me a bit when I see people in charge of something important say things that demonstrate convincingly that they don't understand what they are doing. Lankford PLEASE take the time to learn about the disability program, and how subjective symptoms can be very real and disabling, so you can do your job without hurting a lot of people, including your own constituents.