Eric Harwood has written a moving piece for the Washington Post about his struggles as he waited for Social Security to act on his disability claim. Here's an excerpt:
... My wife and I began selling our things. We had to sell our car, and I sold my motorcycle, which I had built from the ground up. It wasn’t anything special, nothing fancy; but it was something I put a lot of time and sweat in to. I sold it to cover living expenses for about four months. We sold our furniture, and my wife took her clothes to a secondhand consignment shop in Las Vegas to sell them, too. I had 23 remote-controlled cars that I had accumulated over many years — one of my hobbies. I had to sell the entire collection to make it by. Kitchen appliances and everything else we could think of to put up for sale went, too.
On Feb. 12, 2016, my wife and I officially became homeless. We decided to leave Nevada for Arizona, where we would move in with my wife’s parents. When we left our home, we rented a 17-foot U-Haul truck, and we didn’t even fill half of it. That was all we had left in our world. We also left behind my wife’s brand new business. But the worst part was leaving behind our grown daughter, the most important thing in both of our lives. We waved goodbye to her, and went to Arizona. ...By the way, the author and whoever at the Washington Post edited this piece seem to be confused about the difference between Medicare and Medicaid but there's nothing unusual about that.
7 comments:
It's unfortunate that the processing time and decision-making process can leave people impoverished while they wait for benefits. It happened to my mother, who was fired for medical inability to perform five years shy of SSA's minimum retirement age, and then burned through the 401k she had amassed over 40 years to pay rent, COBRA, and medical bills.
The answer to why this happens is relatively simple: SSA can't just take people at their word. Some lie and say whatever is necessary to obtain benefits because they're in a tough spot (bad economy, felony convictions, etc.) and some money is better than none. Some are truly impaired, but don't understand that the disability standard requires more than just having medical problems. I've seen people retire in their 50s with full pensions and then apply for Title II benefits as an early bridge to their retirement benefits. I've also seen represented claimants get to an ALJ hearing and testify that they could probably do sit-down jobs if there were any available, but they applied for disability benefits because there just weren't any jobs like that in their area or they just weren't hiring.
It would be wonderful if SSA could just give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but they can't. Trying to distinguish people with legitimate disabilities from those who don't understand the system or who are trying to game the system is hard and time-consuming.
I don't understand what we are getting at here. Are they saying you should maintain the level of your income and lifestyle as if unaffected? So all of this would have been avoided if he had been approved instantly? There is a lot missing in this story, like actually filing for Medicaid for assistance with the medications and treatment, and oh so much more. I guess that huge SSDI check would have saved the day.
@12:07
Who said SSA should take people at their word? Spend more on administration. Hire more decision writers, ALJs, claims representatives, etc.
Why do they have to embed the video with this headline "The disability benefits program is running out of money. Here’s why:" in this article??
SSA doesn't take people at their word; their word has to coincide with medical evidence. Most people trying to game the system don't get anywhere.
However, this standard for disability, ability to do unskilled sedentary work with no production requirement, these jobs just don't exist. The unskilled sedentary jobs listed in the DOT haven't been updated since the late 70's. Recently, a claimant who was a casino cashier was denied benefits because it was determined that she could return to her 'sedentary' job, but there are no sedentary jobs at the casinos in Mississippi. Cashiers have to stand and walk during their entire shift. There are no benches or stools in the cashier cage. Here lately, vocational experts cite the job of 'order caller'. This is unskilled and light or sedentary. I've never met an order caller.
While it's very difficult to get disability, some people think they can get benefits without help. I would seek representation before selling everything.
Nobody reasonable is arguing that SSA shouldn't question people's word and require proof of disability. That's not the issue. While there are a number of things contributing to backlog by far the biggest is Congress' deliberate under-funding of SSA's administrative budget. Despite being told exactly what would happen if they kept underfunding the agency's administrative budget they keep doing it anyway.
If you are mad that you were bankrupted or made homeless waiting for your disability hearing and want to yell at the people most responsible, the Republican leadership in the House would be a great place to start, since their hands are heaviest on the purse strings.
You are right 8:27.
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