Social Security Disability
by Marilyn Mackenzie
Most of us in the U.S. go about our lives without thinking much about the Social Security Disability system. Why should we? We're healthy, we're active, and we're working. Then something happens that makes it impossible for us to work. It could be an injury or an illness. Something happens to make us unable to work.
Most of us put off applying for Social Security Disability benefits. We don't want to admit that we're "disabled." We don't want to admit that we cannot work anymore. We don't want it to be so! Besides, we truly believe that since we have been productive members of society, that when we do apply for benefits, we'll have them a short time later.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Yes, there are some few cases that are approved right away, but that is not the usual or normal situation. Instead, most people are denied the first time, many the second time, and some are denied completely, even though they have files that are six inches thick with proof of all the ailments and issues they have.
If you are disabled, no matter what your status - whether you have been approved and are receiving benefits, are awaiting a decision, or have not yet filed for benefits - here is a great group that I would recommend everyone join.
Social Security Disability Coalition Group
Here is a petition to sign, whether you are disabled or not. It calls for reform in the Social Security Disability claim and approval process.
The peition says, "Millions of people across the country become disabled unexpectedly - 12,000 per week in this country apply for long-term disability benefits."
It could be you or a loved one who is hurt or disabled. Don't you want this system fixed before you or your loved ones are required to apply for benefits?
This is the story of Linda Fullerton - President/Co-Founder of the Social Security Disability Coalition. Be prepared to cry or get angry.
I had a back injury in 1997. In 2000, I was in two rear-end (car) collisions. In one of those I received a whip-lash injury. In 2002, I injured my knee at work. And in the year, 2003, I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and all of the ailments that go along with them. I applied for Social Security Disability benefits in mid-2002 and have been denied twice. I finally had a hearing before a judge in July 2007. The judge has still not determined whether or not he thinks I'm disabled and, if so, when the disability began. Yes, he can decide that. The judge can decided that when I was in court in July I was disabled, but not before that. He can decide that my disability began when I turned 55 or when I turned 50 or when I actually had my knee injury. My fate is in his hands.
What most of us don't realize is that although Social Security Disability is a national program, there are different outcomes for individuals with the exact same maladies or ailments in different states. Some states, for instance, finally accept fibromyalgia as a disability. Others do not. Even in your own local area, there can be judges that side with individuals with certain ailments and judges that do not. The system really does stink.
Please do sign the petition, no matter what your own situation.
And do read the Linda Fullerton's story.
Our government does seem to want many disabled individuals to die before benefits are approved. Yes, there are supposed to be avenues that allow those who are dying, who have terminal illnesses, to receive benefits much quicker than the "normal" diabled person. But even that doesn't always work.
I am aware of one man who has cancer, a cancer that will most likely kill him (unless he gets an awesome God miracle). The doctors and hospitals can provide the proof that this man is totally unable to work. And yet, since October he has been struggling to get some income. At this time, he lives with friends, since having no income means he cannot keep a roof over his own head or provide food for himself.
This should not happen in the United States. And yet it does.
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Comments: 41
I'm thinking some people apparently don't know much about being in pain. I think it's a whole lot more comforting to be at home than at work hurting. I've been working while in pain and in tears. I would have preferred to be at home.
Amanda - I'm not sure what you mean by saying that pain doesn't go away at home, so people could work in pain. I can't imagine trying to work while in pain. Most people who are in pain and at home are not "going about their life" Everything they do comes at a great price to their physical well being.
Just to get showered and dressed takes me over an hour (and requires assistance). Then I have to sit quietly with my feet up for half an hour before I have enough strength to stand again and microwave something for breakfast. My mind can be very active and spry as long as my body sits quietly. It certainly doesn't feel like I'm, going about my life.
I do hope you never have pains like I have. Truly. Personally, I would love to be working. But...what employer wants to hire someone who has to take an afternoon nap everyday? Or who has to be on so many medications that they make you either a zombie or seem to be high (well you are!)? And, as Angela mentioned above, there are the risks to employers that they're not willing to take by hiring some persons. And you can't blame them.
As I sat at the hearing last July, there was a vocational expert there. As each one of my maladies were listed, she was asked if there was a job I could perform. She said there was not.
It's impossible to say if things would have worked out the same without one, but it seems today you need all the help you can get with bureaucracies.
You were blessed to be approved so easily, John. It is not always so, even with a good attorney.
My attorney has some horrible stories to tell about cases that were not approved that should have been.
Like I said, so much depends on where you live and who is approving. :-) Here, if it goes to the stage where one sees an administrative judge (like my case) there are some judges who automatically approve a case like mine and some who automatically do not. I got a judge in the middle - which, I think is a more fair judge. Even so, even though my medical file is 4 inches thick, he's still asking for more medical information and more forms to be filled out by medical professionals. (They - the medical professionals - hate the system too. One of my doctors totally refused to fill out even one form. Can she get away with that? Yes, she did.)
His meds were paid for by PA, he had a roof over his head thanks to his girlfriend, and he had family who tried to help him.
He could have saved something. Of course he would not have known that in two years his alcoholic, drug addicted self would lapse into a coma, and die weeks later. His coma was cocaine and insulin induced. He took them within minutes of each other.
I know his case is not the norm. I also know that if they paid a lot of attention to his case, he ought not to have gotten it at all. they had to have known he did not take care of himself diabetes wise, and that he did drugs every day of his adult life.
I don't get the system at all. The people who really need it and whom want to live a longer life, are denied repeatedly. And here he was killing himself the whole time!
Amanda, I cannot dispute what you've seen or experienced. But I do know that most children who are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD are done so because some teacher thinks they have it and wants the kids to be drugged to make them easier to handle. Most parents don't want their kids on drugs, but they can be forced to drug their children. As a parent who home schooled my only son from 4th through 12th grade, I came in contact with hundreds of parents who took their children out of public schools so they didn't have to have them drugged or labeled learning disabled.
In the instance Amanda is stating...I wasn't aware such a benefit existed for learning disabled children. One area of paid benefits that I totally disagree with is SSI paying monthly benefits to perfectly healthy children under the age of 18 because one of their parents is retired and eligible for SSI. As far as I'm concerned, it was the individual who chose to have children late in life. This couple I know has 36 years difference between them. They have two kids...one 13 and one 16. Last year their father hit retirement age. SSI is not only paying his spouse but also these two healthy kids until they're 18 and possibly until they're out of college.
While their two healthy children are collecting benefits for which they've never contributed and have no medical issues to justify the payments, others who've paid into the system for years are denied benefits when they need them the most and for legitimate medical conditions.
The system is totally whacked.
Now...as far as working and living with pain. I can't expect anyone who's never experienced the kind of pain we speaking of to truly understand.
Marilyn...you and I know..the kind of pain we're talking about. The kind of pain that lasts for months on end that messes with your body and mind until you believe suicide is your only way to get relief. The kind of pain that forces you not to move out of fear that it will intensify beyond what you already think is the limit of what you can endure. The kind of pain when you can't sit, stand or walk between spasms that reduce you to a crying mess and makes you feel like a pitiful excuse of a human being. The kind of pain that limits your social activities and interaction with family, friends and the outside world. And finally...the kind of pain that hurts so bad that you can't bare to be touched by anyone...even if it's just a hug or a pat on the back.
Good luck to you Marilyn and if there was anything I could do to help you out, I most certainly would.
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It particualrly galls me when I saw an expose on NOW tonight about rampant corruption of scores of politicians in Alaska dipping into the till assocated with the major oil companies.
It is also no huge sacrifice for our country to drop 500 pound bombs to kill two insurgents in Iraq and so on and so on and son on.
It is also crimnal that we have allowed and indeed encouraged the prison business to warehouse 2 million inmates most of whom will only learn how to be better criminals when they are finally let out 25 or so years later.
I am afrai you have touched a nerve - I could go on a rampage for hours.
Derek didn't qualify for SSI until I got hurt. When my income dropped to less than $6,000 a year, our son started receiving SSI, as did I. When my income increased, but not enough to be above poverty level, I stopped receiving it and he still received it. Does that make sense? Back then, it wasn't just because his father was older but because his father was older and I could not earn enough money. It was not an automatic thing, and there were quarterly reports to prove income and to prove where the money went.
I have arthritis in both knees and can barely walk let alone climb up subway steps to go to work. I practically cry just thinking that I have to walk up the corner. I applied for Disability 13 months ago and was denied in January of this year. They said my knees were just stiff. I asked them to review my case and all I got so far is a letter telling me that they were working on it.
Now I also have to stay home to take care of my sister whose arthritis is very sever and is dying from colon cancer. I have no job and no money. I've be on Public Assistance since October of last year and have Medicaid, food stamps, and PA pays $182 of my $800 plus rent every month.
By mistake, PA dropped me in October of this year and after practically begging on the phone and sending them a ton of information I was told I was back on. They did not pay the $182 for my December rent and now I have to scrounge around for the extra money.
The day before Thanksgiving I received a letter from them saying that I was definitely back on PA but they were going to send $50 a month less to my landlord? Why? Because I was honest with them and told them that month or so I make about $100 selling Nutrisystem. That is why I will be getting $50 less. What about my electric bill? Gas bill? Telephone Bill? Where do they think I'm getting the money for those bills? They didn't realize that I needed to get some money in the house to pay for what they weren't?
The SS system sucks, the Public Assistance system sucks. I worked for 30 years, paid my taxes and when I need some of the SS money that I paid back they refuse to give it to me. The people are screwed all the time. Meanwhile I can't walk, my sister is dying, I have holes in my shoes and underwear that I have to sew, and bill collectors threatening to sue me.
Everyone needs to sign the petition, whether you're healthy or not. We need to change things.
Per Social Security, they suggest writing a letter to your Congressmen asking for more funding for them so they can process claims quicker. With the backlog that exists, that seems an excellent recommendation. In the situation of your friend, I understand a "Congressional Flag" on a SSD claim file is supposed to indicate the need that a decision is dire. Whether that works or not, I don't know. But since Congressmen take the time to do it, I suspect it must have some impact?
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