Millions of jobless file for disability when unemployment benefits run out

How dare people try to collect benefits from the government that they paid for!

In order to even collect state disability insurance or federal disability, it requires you to have worked and paid taxes. True, you can get on SSI (supplemental social security) without previously working but that doesn't amount to nearly as much money. To collect SS you need to have a current doctor saying you are disabled as well as medical records to back it up. It is a long, thorough process and not just anyone can collect. Sure there are some people who fraud the system, but I find it hard to believe that the majority of people filing for disability are simply lazy or drug addicts.

I see a lot of posters trashing bi polar disorder as not being a serious illness. Left untreated, Bi Polar disorder is a very severe illness. People cannot function as productive members of society if their emotional state is incredibly unstable and uncontrollable. Bi polar disorder is a disability if you are suffering from delusions or hallucinations. It is serious if you are so ill you cannot care for yourself or hold a stable job. Drug usage is common in bi polar patients, but it is a symptom not the reason for the disorder. Patients are prone to substance abuse due to their increased reckless behavior and lack of self control. Bi polar disorder is an illness not just a flawed personality. To say untreated bi polar disorder is not a severe mental illness is like saying schizophrenia isn't a severe mental illness.


My husband is bi polar. He lost his job due to being untreated and having a steadily increasing manic state. A few months later he was hospitalized because his mania turned into psychosis. This included paranoia, delusions, even hallucinations. The only option we had to help us was to file for medicare to help pay for his very much needed medication. However, you can't file for medicare until you also file a social security claim. So that is what we did. As it so happens my husband now receives social security, the money he receives was based off the taxes he paid while he was capable of working. I don't see what is wrong with my husband or any other mentally ill person doing this. Sure, once the person is stable again they should go back to work, but according to several doctors I have personally spoke to, this could take months if not years to find the right combination of medicines and therapy for him to function as a normal adult again.

I think the increase in disability claims also has to do with more awareness. If you are ill, mentally or physically, and you cannot pay your medical bills most hospitals have a social worker who helps you fill out your paperwork for whatever benefits you may qualify for.

reply to post by wanderingstar


Nothing wrong IF you have a mental disability. Unfortunately there are so many out there, it seems that you are abnormal if you don't have any. Almost everyone I know has something, ADD, OCD, something that they can claim. Hey I have all the same symptoms, just like everyone else, nothing new. The problem is people like to buy new fancy cars, and big houses, when they were in high school, I heard this a lot " I just don't care" from a lot of people who didn't care, and now live in the slums. I listen to a radio show from time to time, where this guy helps people with their "money" issues. It seems a lot of people are complaining about not having a job or whatever. Recently my boss tried hiring people, most of them didn't even show up for the interview. It was just about saying your looking for a job, so you can get unemployment. This is pretty much how I see it:

All the people in high school who "didn't care" now are getting out to the real world, and are finding out that the HS diploma doesn't mean anything. Then they get some job working for min. wage, decide to buy a BMW or Benz anyways, along with a nice big fancy house. Then they can't figure out why their living in such poverty and can't buy food, so they apply for food stamps and the like. The point is, if your living in America, your blessed, every where else in the world it is a lot worse. Sell your fancy car, get a realistic one, that is used and cheap, get out of that house, live within your means. Go back to school, learn something this time. Problem is nobody wants to sacrifice, except those of us who are okay, we've learned how to sacrifice and which is why we aren't in a bad position. It all comes down to people are lazy, they don't want to put effort into their lives, so instead they leech of the rest of the people who do. Nobody should be responsible for you, except you, thats it. You have the right to life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness, not happiness. We have EQUAL OPPORTUNITY not EQUAL OUTCOME. Just because the government guarantees it doesn't mean you'll get it, so don't count on it. I make the money I GET, nothing more, I don't see the money taxed as money I earned. What was the final result you got, thats how much you make. You look at it that way, you aren't losing any money. I don't care if I ever get the money back.

Originally posted by anthonygillespie2012
This is just disgusting. There are people with real disability who really are disabled and the idiots who do drugs and can't find a job try to be disabled. How pathedic.

So true, it took me the last three years to get approved for social security. I don't understand how people are getting approved so quickly? So to repeat I have been out of work for the last three years and several treatments and surgery later and finally was approved for disability benefits. The only thing that kept me afloat during that time period was workers comp and even with that I had to jump through hoops and miss out on a lot of paychecks and get behind in bills etc.. The system is setup to fail those who need it, those that have paid into it. I know I myself have been paying into it for well over 20yrs, and even though I was approved last month I have yet to see a check!!! But I am willing to bet the lawyer got his already. So if this article is true then I would like to know the tricks people are using to get approved so quickly, because I know many other people in the same boat as myself that took forever to get approved?

reply to post by wanderingstar


Your husband paid into the system for a long time. It is good that he was able to benefit from it when he needed it. However in the under 30 crowd there are a lot of people who see a friend collect 'free' money and follow their foot steps. It is easy to defraud the system if you know what to say, how to act, and what lawyer to hire.

reply to post by wanderingstar


Just to cut in here,

I have a friend of mine that got some kind of gene-therapy treatment for bi-polar.

That was a few years ago and it seems to have worked.

The way it was explained is a serum was somehow produced and injected.

It apparently changed the genetic structure of the problem causing cells.

Complicated and I don't actually understand the way it was done.

You might want to look into it.

~~

reply to post by jrod



My husband and I are in the under 30 crowd. He's 24, but he's been working full time since he was 16.

I don't understand why people are so quick to judge all young adults as lazy and entitled and trying to cheat the system. Most mental disabilities manifest in young adulthood, so I think that may be one reason for younger people to be filing claims. When he was hospitalized there were several young adults experiencing the same symptoms.

Also, do you have proof that it is so easy to commit fraud and collect social security? Because in my experience, we were required to submit all of his medical records, there were interviews and a 7 month waiting period before he was approved.

Originally posted by wanderingstar
reply to post by jrod

 

My husband and I are in the under 30 crowd. He's 24, but he's been working full time since he was 16.

I don't understand why people are so quick to judge all young adults as lazy and entitled and trying to cheat the system. Most mental disabilities manifest in young adulthood, so I think that may be one reason for younger people to be filing claims. When he was hospitalized there were several young adults experiencing the same symptoms.

Also, do you have proof that it is so easy to commit fraud and collect social security? Because in my experience, we were required to submit all of his medical records, there were interviews and a 7 month waiting period before he was approved.

Your quick to say that we are judging ALL of them. We're not, just MOST of them.

reply to post by wanderingstar


Seven months!
Thank your lucky stars. I've been waiting three years. Your husband's condition may improve. I'll keep going downhill. I'll be happy if I'm not in a wheelchair in five years while still waiting to get approved.

I've already had to go to a hearing. I'm surprised your husband didn't.
Neither of my cousins claiming to be bi-polar had to go to hearings.

The first time they denied me, the letter said that I would have to be blind to be approved.
No. I'm not kidding.

I am 28 so when I call the under 30 crowd lazy and full of self entitlement issues it is not out of ignorance but out of what I've seen. Not everybody but certainly many of us are.

Right now I am unemployed, have been since 2009, I just got rejected from another job today because of 'gap' in employment. You would think someone who needs a deckhand on a boat would want someone who is ex-Navy, who countless sea time since 2009 on my personal vessel, and someone who is familiar with the International/Inland Rules of Navigation on their boat. My point here is I have 'friends' in my age group who know I am unemployed, broke ask me why don't I just try to get on disability here is what you have to do.

reply to post by jrod


Yes, people do know what to do in order to get on disability. They also know which doctors to go to who will write false reports.

The reason so many people claim mental issues is because they cannot be seen on an x-ray or other medical tests. They just have to know the right people who are willing to say the right things.

When I had to go to my hearing, there was a man there who looked to be in his mid forties. When he went into the judge's chamber, I started talking to his wife who told me that he was working with heavy machinery when a cable broke loose and part of the machine fell on top of him. He was knocked out cold and taken to the hospital where they had to amutate his leg below the knee and they also discovered that he had three fractured vertebrae.
I can't believe this man had to be seen before a judge while ex-druggies aren't being forced to.

I sure hope that man got approved. He deserved it.

reply to post by andersensrm


My feelings are that if I paid taxes into state disability insurance and social security insurance, then I am entitled to receive those benefits, just as I would be entitled if I paid into a private insurance company. Are you saying you do not plan on collecting social security when you retire then?

This thread is very frustrating because everyone seems to be making assumptions about other people's health and lives based off anecdotal evidence. Why does it always come back to the presumption that poor people are lazy and want free money? How are people that are collecting money from social institutions that they helped fund at one point somehow less than others? More so, what does that have to do with this topic? I thought this was about millions of jobless collecting unemployment, with a large percentage having mental disabilities. Yet I see no one looking into the criteria of being able to claim disability before making blanket statements and judgements.

Social Security Disability

As I said above and many other posters have also stated, How are these people getting approved so quickly?

I've been working since I was 15. The past 3 years have been the only time I've not been working or going to school, my income was taken away last year when the US government shut down online poker. Yes without any doubt my generation is extremely lazy, even some of those I served with in the Navy were infected with laziness.

That laziness is what breeds the fraudulent disability claims. People used to take pride in working hard, that mentality is hard to find now. I am sad to say it but my generation is one that wants to give little and get a lot in return.

reply to post by Afterthought


I am very, very grateful that there was a safety net to help us during this crisis. I'm sorry to hear about that your claim is taking so long, I can only imagine how difficult it is. I admit the system isn't perfect and there are a lot of improvements that could be made to the social security system.

reply to post by xuenchen


Hmmm. Ever heard of the NCD Pandemic, aka Chronic Disease Pandemic?

In 2011, the NCD Pandemic will kill over 37 million people - more than all other causes combined. Up from 36 million in 2008, the death toll is still climbing; ... Over 12 million NCD fatalities this year are under the age of 60, at 33% of the NCD death toll - up from 9 million at 25% in 2008. The death toll in people under 40 is rising rapidly. Children are being diagnosed in record numbers, and kids born after 2000 are the first generation expected to die before their parents.

NCDs are incurable, progressing systematically from degeneration to disability, and slowly to death. Some symptoms are treatable, and progression can sometimes be delayed, but prevention is the only real defense.

The soaring NCD disability rate in relatively young people is a global crisis. ...

The NCD Pandemic

Once called "diseases of civilization," chronic disease is now pandemic - the leading cause of death globally, killing more people each year than all other causes combined. One third of these deaths occur in people under 60. Chronic disease fatalities are rising rapidly in poorer nations; in the richer countries, costs are soaring to maintain survivors. Officially called "noncommunicable diseases" (NCDs), the main four are cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases. The World Economic Forum (WEF) adds mental illness to the list, reporting that mental health, "typically left off lists of leading NCDs, will account for $16 trillion - a third of the overall $47 trillion anticipated costs." The WEF states unequivocally, "This is not a health issue, this is an economic issue."

reply to post by anthonygillespie2012


You try going out there and getting a real job and then come back and call such people losers.

We're in the middle of a recession!

I.................

I think everyone knows SOMEONE that RIDES the disability train.
If you have one of the 'listed' diseases you can get approved FAST.
I know someone with a neurological disease that is listed, and she was approved in less than a month. That said, she was capable of working - that was 15 years or so or more and she has been working as a volunteer at a school almost EVERY day since that time.

I know a couple more that are disabled but always at the flea market selling - never miss a day.

Then I know people with diseases like Fibro and chronic fatigue that are sick as hades and in bed every day and can't get approved. Too much education.

That's what blows my mind, how people that would not even finish high school get it so easily but if you busted butt and went to college, you actually get PENALIZED by the system for having an education and/or skillset.

My doc said he'd support me on it. I don't want to BE disabled though. I work as I can, I've got skills and when I'm nto kept to a tight schedule I do ok. Now my hubby is unemployed and I'm second guessing myself some - it would be nice to have a dependable source of income right now...yes it would....yes it would. But I've waited too long anyway so I'm not eligible anymore anyway, then too, there's that ol' pride thing, I STILL dont' want to be considered disabled.

I don't know what the answer is. I see people getting on it for mental reasons - know a young man that just pulled a few month's inpatient crazy and I'M SURE he was being coached by someone that is a disability QUEEN. Who WANTS that train though? You always gotta go to this doc then that doc and it's a CULTURE of sickness you HAVE to participate in - or you can LOSE your benefits.

Know someone with fibro that doesn't act like she's GOT fibro (moving furniture is a snap to her and she does it all the time, takes care of kids daily, ect.)....and she's every so often got to come up with some NEW diagnosis to keep her benefits. She's done went down the crazy road- so now she is 'bipolar' too and she's got a degenerative disk (like who doesn't?)...ect. ect. ect.

You will see me on these forums all the time supporting food stamps, welfare checks, social security for seniors, even a 1 payer health care system (Or make insurance illegal)...but the disability thing - oh MAN it's a mess. It's a culture of sickness where the doctors are robbing everyone blind legally because the 'patients' have so many vague complaints, and the government is just there to pay, pay, pay.

I see the whole disability system as making people SICKER. It clusters in families and causes legal drug abuse.

The only GOOD I see of it is that it DOES free up some people to work FOR THE PEOPLE. IE volunteering at a school and watching kids while others work, coaching little league ect., just having people homes in neighborhoods to watch things during the day - that helps people. There's better ways though.

Originally posted by wanderingstar
reply to post by andersensrm

 

My feelings are that if I paid taxes into state disability insurance and social security insurance, then I am entitled to receive those benefits, just as I would be entitled if I paid into a private insurance company. Are you saying you do not plan on collecting social security when you retire then?

This thread is very frustrating because everyone seems to be making assumptions about other people's health and lives based off anecdotal evidence. Why does it always come back to the presumption that poor people are lazy and want free money? How are people that are collecting money from social institutions that they helped fund at one point somehow less than others? More so, what does that have to do with this topic? I thought this was about millions of jobless collecting unemployment, with a large percentage having mental disabilities. Yet I see no one looking into the criteria of being able to claim disability before making blanket statements and judgements.

Social Security Disability

No I don't plan on collecting anything, nor do I want to. When I reach the age to collect on SS the money simply won't be there, "you can't make a stone bleed" If the money isn't there, it isn't there, and thats what its looking like right now. A large % CLAIM to have disablilities but I don't think they are really disabling them to the point that they need funding from the government. Sure SOME of them are, but MOST are not. Personally I've never seen someone park in a handicap parking spot and actually look handicapped. I mean they got up, walked around just fine, talked okay, doesn't make sense to me.

reply to post by andersensrm

Personally I've never seen someone park in a handicap parking spot and actually look handicapped. I mean they got up, walked around just fine, talked okay, doesn't make sense to me.

I hear you there. Everyday I see this as well everywhere I go. Yes I am disabled, yes I have to use a cane to assist in walking, nope never had I even considered getting one of those tags. But it does make my blood boil when I see it as well. And I am sorry but if someone is obese and doesn't require a wheelchair to get around they should not qualify for special parking, in fact maybe park a little further and it might help your health if anyone knows what I am getting at. Pregnant women should be allowed a short term pass in my opinion though.