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.