Unfit for Work

NPR ^ | 22 Mar 2013 | Chana Joffe-Walt

[Theoria]

Article by NPR on the rise of disability claims.

[hometoroost]

Rise in disability fraud is more like it. So many Social Security lawyer scammers on TV now it’s ridiculous.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Amazing how NPR manages to miss the real story/cause and effect.

[pepsionice]

The problem here...is that disability payments weren’t built to this standard in the system. We’d have to take another three-to-five percent of a guy’s salary....to make this work in the next forty years forward. But the question is....where is the line for this?

This reminds me of my Air Force days, and a guy who played on the base basketball team for three years. He’d had various aches and pains, twisted muscles, and at least two operations by the fourth year. Somewhere by age twenty-eight, he was declared disabled and given a discharge from the Air Force...with full disability (100 percent). All of this...from sports. We all shook our heads over this, but you can’t stop these kind of actions.

[Cowboy Bob]

I would like to see the racial and educational breakdown of the people on disability.

[oh8eleven]

People who leave the workforce and go on disability qualify for Medicare.
But, but, I thought it was all those greedy geezers who were killing Medicare?
Even worse - it's the seniors who have paid into Medicare their entire working lives who will be forced to endure cut backs and increased costs while the "sick, lame and lazy" give up zilch.

[A_perfect_lady]

Well... I have a Master’s degree and I’m on my feet all day. I teach middle school and I rarely sit down. I’m at the front of the room either guiding the reading, writing on the board, showing a movie — but I’m one of those irritating types who pauses it frequently to point things out — so I really just do not sit down. I also have horrible lower back pain and have since I was a teenager. You just suck it up and keep going. It helps not to stand still.

[wac3rd]

When Soros and the WH call about a giant distraction story to be printed to throw off the Lefties who read your drivel (just like today’s WaPo) article on guns...

You do it. They sign your paychecks.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

My wife worked for one of those law firms that specializes in getting people disability when their unemployment benefits run out. She was just a clerical type. The woman attorney who owned it thought she was a captain of industry. I kept telling my wife she was nothing but a glorified welfare queen. Plus, she cut a lot of robo-signing corners when her attorneys left. Some of them were "signing" legal documents years after they had left.

My wife was in collections, helping people repay the disability insurance company when they received their first lump-sum check from the government. Her job was the only one actually generating revenue, and the idiot woman did not value it, so they lost the contract with the insurance company.

The law firm is going under now, and it looks like the captain of industry is about to be prosecuted by the Feds. The only reason, of course, is because she is not one of Eric Holder's people. If she were, any crimes would be A-OK.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

“Crazy Checks”, money paid for mental disorders. BTW, if you can get your little bastard diagnosed as disabled, mamma be getting an additional check from Obama.

[oh8eleven]

I would like to see the racial and educational breakdown of the people on disability.
Stop into your local Social Security office and you'll be stunned at who's in the waiting room.
I live in a suburb with maybe 5%-7% minorities, but the SS office waiting room is always 90% minority. Most are well under 40 y/o.
And like our schools, malls and other gubmint buildings, they have to have security guards. In an SS office. Think about it.

[0.E.O]

I would like to see the racial and educational breakdown of the people on disability.

Based on the story I'd say educational level of the average recent applicant is high school graduate or less. Racial makeup is probably all over the board.

[Carry_Okie]

In Hale County, Alabama, 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability. On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.

And I get to tolerate 'California is a welfare case' posts while Californians FUND this kind of largesse.

BTW, the biggies are obviously back pain and mental illness, both of which are easily faked.

[Lurker]

“Just suck all the benefits you can out of the system until everything is gone, and then you’re on your own.”

Wonderful. And the a**hole giving that advice never once considered the fact that the “system” is people like me who drag our asses out of bed everyday at 530 to pay for their “benefits”.

I swear somedays I can’t wait until the shooting starts.

[I cannot think of a name]

“History has judged Clinton’s welfare reform a big success.”

Only if history is being written by brain dead liberal jackasses with no regard whatsoever for the facts. Clintoons “ending of welfare” reforms are in fact the MAJOR cause of the mess we are in. His ‘ending’ meant spreading it over 80 government programs and hiding the true cost.

I suggest you go to this website and start with this article if you want the actual truth. (DO NOT send me any private e-mails about wanting your monitor or keyboard replaced - if you can’t deal with finding out how badly we are getting screwed, don’t click below!)

http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2012/10/welfare-is-at-an-all-time-high

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

and I felt uncomfortable about taking disability for injuries related to military service.

[napscoordinator]

A definitely Red State problem. I wonder why since Red states aren’t supposed to be freeloaders since they are more conservative. Kinda disappointing. I was hoping it was the blue states who had the disability scam. Rats!!!!

[Theoria]

Yes, I understand.

Society has changed dramatically. More people have less honor now, and shame has disappeared from the societies response to control such actions or in setting the social norms.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

Somewhere by age twenty-eight, he was declared disabled and given a discharge from the Air Force...with full disability (100 percent). All of this...from sports.

---

I worked with the family of a Sergeant who went into a seizure and never came back out. He was kept in an induced coma to try to stop the seizure. When death was imminent, he was medically retired. I argued with the “experts” when they tried to designate him as “50% Disabled.”

[factoryrat]

Common theme. I lost my job:

At the mill.
At the plant.
At the factory.
At the farm.
At the mine.
At the jobsite.

See the common denominator?

Didn't think so.

What to do with millions of displaced workers? You can only hide and placate so many of them. It's also getting much harder to hide the workers and countries of origin that displaced these Americans.
It's also going to get more difficult to convince Americans to continue to federally subsidize cheap foreign labor and profiteering at the expense of national sovereignty.