An Embarrassing Mistake

     From KWTX:

A local mother is speaking out for disabilities awareness after her 4-year-old daughter was denied access to accommodations needed to treat her disability at the Temple Social Security office. 

Scarlett Barker-Thomas has a metabolic disorder that keeps her body from regulating blood sugar properly.  

Because of this, she loses energy quickly and needs frequent feedings through a tube in her stomach.  

Scarlett’s mother, Terrin Barker-Thomas, said she and her daughter visited the Social Security Administration office in Temple on Nov. 13.  

When she tried to bring in a small bottle of apple juice for her daughter, Barker-Thomas said a security guard told her that was against the agency’s food and drink policy, and that any feeding would need to be done outside.  

Barker-Thomas said she tried to explain her daughter’s situation to the guard, but he still refused.  

The manager of the office agreed with the guard, and Barker-Thomas eventually called police. ... 

The Social Security Administration later apologized.  

“We sincerely apologize to Scarlett and her mother,” SSA Deputy Regional Communications Director Veronica Taylor said in a statement. ...

Explosive Package Sent To Acting Social Security Commissioner

     From The Daily Beast:

A Texas woman has been accused of mailing explosives to Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Barack Obama. Abbott reportedly opened the package but it failed to explode because he didn’t open it “as designed.” Court documents say 46-year-old Julia Poff faces charges of transporting explosives with intent to kill or injure for packages allegedly sent to Abbott and Obama in October 2016. Poff also allegedly sent a package to Carolyn Colvin, the commissioner of the Social Security Administration. A six-count indictment alleges the letter bombs “could've caused severe burns and death.” Poff was reportedly angry about not receiving support from her ex-husband. ...

Happy Thanksgiving

Eight Pivotal Dates For Social Security

  
The Motley Fool has a list of what it considers the eight pivotal dates in Social Security history. What do you think of their list?

• Aug. 14, 1935: The Social Security Act is signed into law 
• Aug. 10, 1939: Social Security benefits are broadened to include dependents and survivors 
• Aug. 1, 1956: Amendments are introduced to provide benefits to the disabled 
• Jun. 30, 1961: Amendments allow workers to elect a reduced retirement benefit at age 62
• Jul. 1, 1972: A new law is signed, establishing an annual COLA beginning in 1975 
• Oct. 30, 1972: The Social Security Amendments of 1972 creates the SSI program 
• April 20, 1983: The Social Security Amendments of 1983 are signed into law (partial taxation of Social Security benefits and a gradual increase in full retirement age) 
• April 7, 2000: The Retirement Earnings Test is eliminated for those at, or beyond, full retirement age

Numbers

Washington Post On Social Security's Hearing Backlog

     The Washington Post has another in its series on Social Security disability. The stigmatization is still there -- focusing on an uneducated claimant, a photo of an extremely messy home, a mention of drug abuse -- but the primary focus is on the suffering that Social Security's hearing backlog causes for disabled people and the cause of that backlog, inadequate administrative funding. Still, articles such as this suggest that the problems caused by Social Security's hearing backlog aren't near by. They're out there. They only affect stupid people living in rural areas who are drug addicts. I don't have to worry about this because it doesn't happen to people like me. Let me suggest to the Post's writers that they don't have to travel far to find disabled people to write about. I expect that they can find them within a couple of miles of their offices. They can easily find people with the same problems who have college educations. There are plenty of people their readers can identify with whose lives have been devastated by Social Security's hearing backlog. It can even happen to reporters.
     By the way, I do not tell clients that they should avoid work while awaiting a hearing. I do tell them that regular work, even part time work, can affect their case. Theoretically, if it's below a certain earnings level, it's not supposed to but in the real world it can affect perceptions. Anyway, most claimants who return to work, even part time work, don't last long. Also, by the way, I don't require that male clients wear a dress shirt to their hearing, much less to meet with me.

Being Poor Is Bad For Your Health -- Or Maybe Being In Poor Health Makes You Poor

     From The Guardian:

... [O]ver a 10-year period, Americans aged 54 to 64 who were in the lowest wealth bracket (with financial holdings of $39,000 or less) faced a 48 percent risk for developing a disability and 17 percent risk for dying prematurely, the investigators found.   

By comparison, their peers in the highest bracket (with holdings equaling $560,000 or more) had a 15 percent disability risk and 5 percent premature death risk. 

The fact that people in England are guaranteed cradle-to-grave government-run health care coverage, while Americans are not, did not seem to have much effect. 

The study was published online October 23 in JAMA Internal Medicine.”We saw similar relationships in both the United States and England, which are two countries with very different health and social safety-net systems,” explained Dr. Lena Makaroun, the study’s lead author. ... 

Disability status was assessed on the basis of whether participants could, on their own, get dressed, bathe, eat, get in and out of bed, and use the bathroom. ...

If You Thought That Social Security's Workload Would Decrease After All The Baby Boomers Retired, You Were Wrong

     This is from a report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG). Online services will only get the agency so far. Social Security needs more funding so it can hire more warm bodies to get the work done.

Click on chart to view full size