I'm unable to embed it here but television station WATE in Knoxville ran a long piece on a young woman whose Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits may be terminated. She has digestive problems. She says she needs to go to the bathroom too frequently to work. This sort of limitation is always ignored at the initial and reconsideration levels of review. Always. It's like the problem doesn't exist as far as Social Security is concerned. Unfortunately, this young woman can't ignore the problem.
"Where is the objective evidence to support this claim."
ReplyDelete"I made a photo journal, and if that is not enough, I have some evidence in my purse."
"Oh no, no, get that out of here."
This is a terrible problem for those who suffer from Krohn's disease. This same issue recently caused labor unrest in a chicken processing plant here in NC. Supervisors would not allow workers to leave the production line to make unexpected trips to the bathroom except for scheduled breaks. For years, I had problems with ALJs reacting to any GI problems as though they were just a "belly ache." I had my clients bring their "emergency pack" of extra clothing and diapers with them to hearings. Most of the ALJs at my closest ODAR wanted to see it, so we showed it to them. It did make a difference in the evidence.
ReplyDeleteWell you have an agency that is more and more frequently working from home where this isn't as large of an issue. If one is transcribing medical notes at home or other home office work then this would be less of an issue than in a regular office environment.
ReplyDelete@ 4:13, good point. When the "new" DOT comes out with work from home jobs that don't require contact with others, some people will be surprised. It will soon be outdated by voice recognition software, but the truth is that much of the current workforce is data manipulation that can be done from any location with little/no skill.
ReplyDeleteALJs also get this wrong alot. No they don't just need a job with "access to a bathroom." They need the ability to immediately leave whatever task are doing and spend an impossible to predict in advance amount of time in the bathroom, sometimes with additional time needed to recover and clean afterwards. Not to mention accompanying bouts of pain, nausea, cramping and weakness that can cause absences, tardiness, and additional time off task.
ReplyDeleteCan this young woman apply for any of her parent's SSA benefits?
ReplyDelete