May 27, 2016

Social Security At Cannes Film Festival

     You'd think that the Cannes Film Festival is about the last thing I'd be writing about but there really is a social security connection this year, if a little obliquely. The Cannes grand prize, the Palme d'Or, was awarded to "I, Daniel Blake", a drama about a disabled man in Britain trying to cope with a social security disability process that seems stacked against him. If it were set in the United States, it would be an even more infuriating tale. On this side of the Atlantic, we don't just deny dignity to the disabled; we provide a "system" that leaves a huge proportion of the disabled to fend for themselves without government assistance.

3 comments:

Douglas Smith said...

Amen to your statement about where our system of disability leaves a "beneficiary." We need a system that helps a person who becomes severely impaired continue with a productive life to the extent possible.

Anonymous said...

Very true 7:31AM. When SSA ODAR refuses to reasonably accommodate an employee with years of outstanding performance and awards who develops a disability, it's outrageous. It is even more insane when the employees RA request is to perform their job in the manner they had successfully done for many years. When the Agency then forces the employee to file an EEO case which takes years and still ends without the original RA they requested, ie, to perform their job in the same manner they had successfully done for many years, it is even more sinister. When the Agency subsequently makes work conditions so intolerable the disabled employee is forced out of their job, despite their years of experience and expertise, it is downright malicious, and unquestionably, intentional and deliberate. SHAME SSA ODAR. How much lower can you get? Some example you are setting for other employers.

Dina Padilla said...

Were is the accountability, responsibility & enforcement of our laws? In the last 30 or years, I have yet to see laws judiciously applied for employees ,period, It's all been about saving for corporations & the government. Why would the SSA deny people with disabilities their due that they paid out of their wages? Then the SSA and the ignorant tea party idiots tells the public that the SSA is going broke when it has approximately 3 TRILLION dollars?
There are many younger people who actually think they will never receive their social security benefits which gives the tea party idiots the reasons to insure the reasons for privatizing the SSA for themselves & their friends on Wall st. It is too bad there aren't laws for anyone in government, legislation or executive branch telling outrageous lies to the public.