Bureaucracy Stymies Disability Claimants

Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY ^ | Mar. 30,2004 | Linda Fullerton

[redrock]

Excellent article.

SSI....is one of the screwiest systems we have. I have friends who really NEED to be on it (they have paid for years towards it..with the idea being if they ever needed it...it would be there)...and yet...somehow..they can't be approved.

..and I have met people who seem to know the 'in's' and get it.

Crazy.

redrock

[AuntB]

Crazy, Indeed. Hey, redrock, you know what the worst thing is? As if being sick, not able to work, lose your home, savings, dignity isn't enough....then no one will believe this nonsense is happening. All I got out of posting this article is all those signers being called liars. Some folks have some real surprises in store for them when this particular crap hits the fan at their house. I suspect the people calling them liars don't have to worry about Social Security because they've got a government plan that's better. Thank God, and they should, that they may never have to be jerked around like some people have. I cited what....4 or 5 examples, and that wasn't all of them, of people that died waiting for the SSA to FINALLY approve them.

When my friend Art (9/96) couldn't work any longer because of that damn brain tumor, he filed for SSA disability. Seizures constantly. It was the size of a freakin' lemon. All we got EVERYWHERE, and I searched every corner of this earth, was that there was NO treatment, it could not be operated on, or radiated. Go home and DIE. The SSA took so long that his X employer's insurance wouldn't carry him, even when I paid the $400.00 mo premiums. Now he had no income, no insurance, and was sick. NO private Insurance would touch him, to say the least. It took SSA about 9 months for the first denial, and he had to wait 5 months after quitting work to even file. So it's over a year. Now, they won't tell you why you're denied. They tell ya where they got the info...it's the info you gave them, what they don't lose or just overlook. All these people ever told me was, "GET an attorney". So, I tried to find an attorney. No, you have to get denied AGAIN, then they'll look at it. You see the MONEY has to build up to the max or they won't bother, which is about $5000.00 to the lawyer.

So, you gave them MRI's. A GP's records, Xrays, Cat Scans, A Neurologist, A neurosurgeon, a nature Dr, an oncologist, anyone that would look at this within 200 miles....what else? The lawyers suggested I needed "more" proof. I spent all my savings getting him 400miles away to the only Dr. I could find to do a biopsy, so social security could give that freakin' tumor a "name" to suit them. Oh, SSA sent him to a psychiatrist for their "proof". THAT they would pay for. Do you have any idea what it does to a man, who was productive, talented to be told at 42 years of age that he's gonna die a terrible death, soon? To go over 2 years with no sleep because the siezures keep us both awake everynight. To not be able to afford to live in your own home, get desparately needed medical care.....Then get the paper shuffle from his "disability" benefactor. So you fill out more stacks of their papers. What does he read? What kind of TV does he watch? Does he go to church? over and over. Is he depressed? I suppose I pissed them off when I asked them if they'd be depressed in his shoes. Now it's getting way into the second year. I keep calling, they keep saying "I KNOW NOTHING!!" Finally I got Sen. Ron Wyden to step in and it happened. Gordon Smith, the republican senator never even responded. I have often wondered if Wyden cared because the patient's last name sounded "foreign". Besides, that was a couple years before I had ticked either one of them off. We were lucky there. It took another 2 years before Medicare kicked in. It cost me everything I had saved for, IRA's, coins, jewelry, my past, present and future. By then I was so sick I couldn't enjoy any of it anyway!! LOL!!

And the mismanagement and "employee tenure" has gotten worse, as time has gone on. And people wait, lose everything, or die. You can't hear the ring of truth in some of those stories on the petition unless you've been there. And you can spot the BSer's a mile away and so should the SSA, but those seem to just sail through. BECAUSE if you have little work experience or training, you are considered MORE disabled. We are punished for making anything of ourselves. It's Crappola, folks!

[mathluv]

I am on SS disability. I did not get a lawyer, and my claim was denied (in spite of my doc's letters, etc.). I filed again, and was denied. I was told - on the side by someone in the SS office - I had to have a lawyer. She (the lawyer) said it would take a year to have my hearing. I finally got it, but I had used all of my savings, cashed in life insurance, etc., and was within weeks of being homeless when I finally got some money. The next year, I found out the hard way that they had not withheld any taxes - just another blow.

[AuntB]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal. You're proof that this is going on and I wish we could get others to realize it. As one signer on the petition said, "But for the Grace of God,Go you".Did you see my post #22?

http://www.PetitionOnLine.com/SSDC/petition.html

[AuntB]

FYI

http://www.PetitionOnLine.com/SSDC/petition.html

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[AuntB]

Bump

[mathluv]

I undderstand so much of what you say in your post. I once said that I thought that I was being discriminated against because I was white and a woman. The people doing some testing for SS (Goodwill) said that it was because I had an education (BS, MLS). I still fight on the Workers Comp part of it, which will run out in less than a year.

[swampfox98]

Bump for AuntB.

[Kimberly GG]

Hello aunt B. this is an old thread, Im not sure if you are still around. was wondering about the status of this petition?

I am a freeper and was searching the net for any information about the backlog of disability claims, my search brought me back here!

Any other victims of the system?