Posted on 09/15/2013 5:40:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
In response to several recent posts on disability fraud, I received several interesting emails from readers.
Reader Ervin writes ....
Hi Mish,There's an App For That!
I have a niece and nephew in their early thirties. Both are perfectly healthy. They have a son with a slight learning disability. The mom got him on disability and then applied for funds to take care of him and got it. Her husband, an Afghanistan vet in supply never saw a moment’s action. He worked at a desk. When he came home he applied for disability claiming Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and got on disability. The wife then applied for money to take care of him. She got it. They are also on a long list of other entitlements like welfare.
They bought a new house a little over a year ago and a month ago they both went out and bought two brand new cars! She actually brags about playing the system.
I have no doubt there are hundreds of thousands or millions doing the same thing. Needless to say it boils my blood.
Ervin
We could help you get your benefits approved! Get your FREE, no-obligation evaluation now.Since when do lawyers do anything for free? Someone has to pay. So who is it?
All free evaluations are performed by an experienced social security disability advocate or attorney.
In my state, most social services are actually administered at the county level, and are funded by the state. Supposedly, there are myriad services they are supposed to offer, from job training, psychiatric support, etc.
In practice, there’s only one service they will provide cheerfully and promptly - assistance in getting on federal disability. See, when the county gets someone on the federal disability rolls, the feds pay the county to reimburse them for what services they might have consumed prior to be putting on federal disability.
After that, the county couldn’t give a rip.
The Government does not care about you. You should not expect that they would.
Isn’t there a number to call when you know there is someone who is committing this fraud?
We got a guy to the neighborhood from NY last year. He pretends to be hurt, if he sees anyone driving by he starts to limp and touch his back but when he thinks non one can see him he is out there driving, picking up his shopping, cutting his grass and the funny thing is that when he was cutting the grass last week he saw us drive by and suddenly stopped, pretended to be hurt and then went inside.
My neighbors have a middle-aged son who is supposedly “retarded.” And he might be, only if you ever spoke to him you’d come away thinking differently. There is absolutely nothing “retarded” about the way he speaks and comports himself; he’s perfectly self-disciplined and does all the work about the house for his retired parents. I’ve often wondered why he couldn’t get a job and care for himself, but I’m tempted to think it’s because he’s getting disability payments and his parents are dependent on the income.
The “other side to that coin”?
I’m 55 and have been told, ad nauseum, that if I retire at 65, I won’t get full SS funding. Some of my peers see this and think, “get livable funding now or not enough later. Easy decision.”
It becomes even easier when someone over 50 loses their job as most employers aren’t willing to hire older workers.
I worked on a car recently with a guy that has experience as an auto mechanic. He absolutely refuses to get a job unless it’s under the table. He is expecting to get disability back pay and having a job would ruin his chances for the back pay.
First off, I am 100% permanent and totally disabled according to the VA and SSA. Neither process was quick or easy. I have met my share of wannabe’s in both. Those whose job it is to determine disability are rather good at picking out those whose desire to be ‘disabled’ is greater than their disability. However their decisions can appear to be arbitrary and often are.
Please also note that he wont have to report the money he makes under the table on his income tax. The same for businesses who only take cash. They think we are dumb.
If anyone deserves disability it is people like you, and I am happy for you, that you finally got it. I don’t believe it should have taken that long.
Snitching on your neighbors is exactly what the Feds want you to do because it diverts you from fighting the real enemy, the Federal government. No doubt there is an epidemic of serious fraud. But, at this point, it makes no difference because the Federal government is irretrievably bankrupt and corrupt. As long as we have such an evil and corrupt Federal government, we might as well hasten its collapse by destabilizing it financially.
Just think of it this way, the money spent on someone’s bogus disability might mean less money for some other fascist agency-IRS, EPA, TSA, BATF.
But if you do snitch on someone, make sure that they are a government worker, lefty teacher or a lib.
At least the people over 50 have been paying into the pork pot for decades. Time for them to get some back?
Bump
If you are able to type intelligently on a computer, as seems to be the case, you are not “100% disabled” for federal work purposes. The system does not work and as you point out, is arbitrary. I think it needs periodic reviews with cancellations when it appears that the rules are not being followed.
Becoming disabled did not render me stupid.
It did, however, render me incapable of holding down a job. My impairment cycles from moderate to severe. My treatment renders me as disabled as much as the original disability.
You are still not actually “100% disabled” from an SSA standpoint if you periodically can work, an small example being interacting here on this forum.
All of us are having to put up with the Americans with Disability Act, a bonanza for lawyers, and it says that “reasonable accommodation” must be offered for people who have intermittent issues. Intermittent problems? No problem with you working for companies (typically larger) who are capable of accommodating you. The Americans with Disability Act is supposed to protect you. People like you can work with “reasonable accommodation,” certainly online work like you are doing now, with rest breaks, special positioning, intermittent schedules, etc all protected.
You may disagree that it ought to be that way, but that’s the way it is legally if they follow their own rules. 100% disability means that you cannot do ANYTHING that earns any money, not even a simple part time job, not even part time.
You may not like a system where you have to be actually 100% disabled to qualify for benefits.
I don’t think it is fair, either, for many situations. That’s the main reason people buy other disability coverage.
But that’s the system, and MANY people end up “getting disability” anyway, in violation of how the system was intended to work.
So you are not “double dipping” like SO many are, getting paid for various cash and even real jobs while simultaneously getting a disability check.
At least you are honest about it, but I assure you it is RAMPANT for people to double dip and “get disability” (”100%) and then do work anyway, on or off the books, and in every case it is fraud either on the part of the claimant, or fraud on the part of “the system,” which does not follow its own rules, but rewards lawyers.
I know one guy getting a full SSI disability check who is also now getting WORKERS COMPENSATION payments for an on-the-job injury at a company he is also about to RETIRE from with some retirement benefits after working there for years! And he also mows lawns here and there for cash! Seriously! He told me about it like it was perfectly normal. In my position I am not allowed to divulge it to the authorities either. It’s a bad system.
The lawyer works on a contingency basis. Typically, one-third of any ‘back-pay’ and expenses. So, if an applicant applies today, and the lawyer helps get the claim approved (up to three years, including appeals). the lawyer would get a full year’s worth of the money PLUS what he says his expenses were (paralegal, medical, etc.) - not a bad deal for basically trying to get the claimant to stay on point and not miss filing deadlines.
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