More on Social Security Disability
I’ve written before (here and here) about Social Security Disability. Well, ti’s time for an update.
Yeah, the Social Security Disability rolls set another record last month. In April 2014, according to the Social Security Administration nearly 11 million Americans (10,996,447) were receiving Social Security Disability benefits.
This total was an increase of over 15,000 from the previous month.
Nearly 9 million of those receiving benefits – 8,942,232, to be precise – were disabled workers. The other 2+ million beneficiaries were spouses and children.
The fraction of America receiving Social Security disability continues to rise also. In 1967, 2 million were receiving Social Security disability benefits – out of a population of roughly 198.7 million. That was about 1.01% of the US population.
Today, the Census Bureaus says the US population is roughly 318 million. Doing the math, that means that nearly 3.5% of the US population (3.46%) is currently drawing Social Security disability benefits.
The number of people drawing Social Security disability benefits today is greater than the estimated population of Tunisia. The number is approaching the population of Cuba.
Any questions regarding why the SSA is now saying that the Social Security Disability Fund will go broke in about 2 years?
The CNS article has an excellent graph showing the number of Social Security Disability recipients by year, but it’s scaled rather small and doesn’t display that well in their article. Click here to see that graph as a separate image.
We are so screwed.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Economy
And yet to so many people Social Security reform is a dirty word…
Screwed is putting it mildly.
Why work when you claim injuries and or disabilities?
I have never seen so many people walking around with canes … All in the few years.
And if you take the dole that way, the government can keep you out of the “welfare” numbers…showing their commitment to full employment.
Indeed, Alberich. That’s one of the unintended consequences of the otherwise excellent Clinton-era welfare reforms (which the current POTUS effectively gutted in 2009 by waiving the work requirement for able-bodied singles and which has never been restored).
States pay a part of welfare costs. How much do states pay of SSI disability?
Two words: “jack” and “squat”.
States began “encouraging” welfare recipients to move to disability in the early/mid 1990s. The graph I linked clearly shows that.
Everybody wins! Except, you know, the taxpayers, society at large, and other inconsequentials.
SSDI isn’t that easy to get, or should I say fast. It takes at least a year to get qualified, and thats not counting if you have to have a court hearing in front of a judge.
The fact is there ARE tons of Americans who are disabled because they are fat. Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension and blown out joints happen, all because of poor diets.
“Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension and blown out joints happen”
And for the most part, those conditions should not prevent someone from working.
Just one guys opinion…
That’s also what the law says, Kinda old ET1.
42 USC 423(d) defines “disability” for Social Security purposes. In essence, to qualify you have to be unable to do any useful work whatsoever – whether or not it’s readily available in your local area.
IMO the SSA ignores this routinely when awarding disability. If they in fact went by the law, I’d guess over half of the current recipients would lose their bennies.
IMO someone has to be really BD physically and/or mentally to be literally unable to work as a receptionist or telemarketer.
Hondo,
It depends on the Judge. Because of looking up things on Birdbath I saw a few Stats on the specific Social Security hearings in the court he practiced in. In the year in question of all the cases heard 37% was the percentage of people who got their Disability Approved.
In order to get to the point where you are in front of a judge you have to have been turned down twice. It also means you have been in the application process for 18-24 months. Durig that entire time you cannot have worked. SSDI applications are ALWAYS disapproved the first time. If you get your ducks in line, more medicak info, and get a good appeal together you may win that first appeal. If the first appeal is denied you can petetion to be seen by a judge. The wait to see a judge can be over a year.
Just An Old Dog: and I’ll bet of that 37% who were approved, fully half could have worked at a sedentary job. If so, the judge should have disapproved their application – because Federal law is damn clear on the legal definition of Social Security disability. If an individual can do any kind of work, regardless of whether it’s work they previously did or is available locally, they do not qualify as “disabled” for SSI purposes.
ALJs making SSI benefits IMO blatantly disregard the law more often than any other group of judges in the US. Federal law is damn clear here, and IMO it’s being disregarded en masse to “help people out” – often IMO with the connivance of gullible, compliant, and/or unethical doctors and lawyers.
“Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension and blown out joints happen”
And for the most part, those conditions should not prevent someone from working.
Just one guys opinion…”
Agreed, thats why they have hearings. My point is too many Americans don’t take care of themselves. I see 400 pound people who are riding around in electric wheelchairs hooked up to oxygen who are in their mid 30s. There is no way they could earn a productive living. Then again I have seen people with cancer work right up unitil they went into hospice.
Like my father. Stage 4 lung cancer and they almost literally had to drag him off the job site.
Then again, you have “lawers” like He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named who mooch off the marginally unemployable for a percentage of their “disability” check.
Blow the shit up, nuke it from orbit, start again.
Better them then more tax breaks for the rich! I am getting my first government check in a couple months no not welfare. Social security! I should have got it last year ;but reagan said rich people needed more tax breaks then people who turn 65 need their social security checks! Thats why he called himself reagan hood he steals from the poor to give to the rich. So I will be join all of you here who get a government check on the government dole!
And another moron heard from. Hey VWP, go fuck a duck.
RM3, why do you want to be mean to ducks?
Fuck you you worthless piece of shit. I am not on the dole, I am a soldier. Don’t even think about comparing yourself to me or any other currently serving military person or retiree. I scrape better than you off the bottom of my boot. Go fuck yourself and go fuck yourself. And when you’re done with that, go fuck yourself. Miserable hippy piece of shit.
Good for you VWP, you put into it, it’s your money. You have to remember its based on how much you worked and paid in. In other words dont expect to be living the life of Riley because you held odd-jobs that paid minimum wage off and on your entire adult life,
Looks like someone lost (or sold) that new supply of meds they got the other day . . . .
Reagan wasn’t president last year numbnuts
Oh, and vwp – what you said above is bullshit. If you turned 62 (or 65) last year, you were still eligible to collect Social Security. The amount was a bit smaller due to the 1983 Social Security reforms than under previous rules. But you were still eligible to collect at the same age.
If you decided to delay receiving benefits in order to get a bigger benefit later, well, that was your choice. Don’t bitch to us about the consequence of your choices.
http://www.ssa.gov/retirement/1943.html
Go suck start a shotgun, fuckstick. Why haven’t you stepped in front of a Prius yet?
vwpussypants, occasionally, you should put down the bong or the hash pipe and clear your head. You might actually make a statement that was coherent if you did.
Oh, and the congress was controlled by Democrats the whole time Reagan was president. Presidents don’t make the laws. At least, they didn’t use to.
VWP must be a product of the public school system.
Current admin announced today, per Drudge, more laws by way of EXORDS are coming.
VWP,
If you put in and qualify it is yours.
Do us a favor though, we kinda enjoy your brief yet incoherant visits, so please don’t mix your SS issued narcs and meds with NiQuil. We want you around so we can laugh at you!
Peace out!
Unless, of course, Congress decides you don’t get it. See Fleming v. Nestor (1960). In that case, the SCOTUS said there is no contractual entitlement to squat from Social Security, even if you’ve paid in enough to qualify. It’s a government benefit, not a contract; Congress can change the eligibility rules as it sees fit.
Bottom line: if Congress chooses to change the law and you lose benefits as a result, you’re SOL.
The wife is on SS disability; it’s a stunning $550 a month. I’m taking a day off from work tomorrow to drive her to Johns Hopkins University Hospital, two hours up the road in Baltimore, to see her new Ortho doc. Looking for a path away from meds and towards healing. And off SS disability.
I just don’t understand how they approve who is eligible and who is not. My sister-in-law was a special education teacher who had to leave her job because she went deaf. SSI has denied her every time she has applied.
Sea Dragon: for Social Security purposes, “disability” is defined in law as a condition far beyond one which prevents working at one’s prior occupation. Per Federal law, one qualifies when they are unable to perform any gainful work, whether or not it’s their previous occupation or even is available locally. From what I’ve seen, IMO SSA often ignores this provision of the law. See 42 USC 423(d).
I’m disabled from a rare incurable genetic degenerative disorder plus a secondary syndrome….I’ve accepted that the social security situation is untenable and I’m screwed, but sometimes I’d like to punch a few of the fakers…