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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why not get a job and work? There are quadriplegics on ventilators who work. There are people with severe multiple sclerosis who don't demand our tax dollar support them. Why can't you work?[/quote]
Because Democrats have so bastardized the disability requirements that merely being a cross-dressing male makes a person eligible for disability. You'd be shocked by the utterly frivolous lifestyle choices that make a person eligible for disability as Democrats have expanded the criteria over and over again.
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I work for SSA and do disability claims for a living. This is a lie. Disability criteria has not changed meaningfully in the last two decades. The biggest change made it harder, not easier to qualify for disability based on mental impairments (12.00 impairments) or musculoskeletal impairments (1.00 impairments). For a mental only disability you generally need schizophrenia, psychosis, very severe bipolar that doesn’t respond to treatment or a very low IQ.

It’s also very,  if you are under 55. Even over 55, it’s unlikely if you’ve done skilled or higher level semi skilled work in the last 5 years.

Also, if active substance abuse contributes to your disability, you don’t qualify.

And yes, a large percent of applicants are vets.

Get your facts right. [/quote]

I do pro bono work helping homeless clients apply for SSDI and this all tracks with the various cases I’ve handled. I have actually yet to get a client approved where the sole disability listing is mental impairment because it is not severe enough to qualify. And of course have seen many issues where drug use led to denial. [/quote]

But the reality is a lawyer well versed in SSI/SSDI knows what to say and what not to say.

I know people who have destroyed their bodies with drugs and alcohol who currently receive SSDI. The lawyer who completed the paperwork for them (same lawyer for both) focused on their mental and physical health issues (noting liver and kidney disease were definitely caused by alcohol abuse which was presumably prompted by underlying anxiety, depression and bipolar). I didn’t actually see the paperwork; I’m relying on what was told to me by the people receiving the benefits. The two I’m thinking of are in their early 50s and haven’t held a job since their 20s.

But they travel. They live a nice life. Their parents largely underwrite their living expenses.

Ftr, I’m all for disability benefits. I just question why these people I know IRL can check out of life and not work like the rest of us. [/quote]

SSA back again.

As to liver and kidney disease. It’s very hard for these to make much impact unless they are very severe/approaching dialysis/transplant levels. I see a lot of stage IIIB chronic kidney disease that has no impact. Liver disease, you start to need things like bleeding ascites.  Neither are going to move the needle unless you have repeat hospitalizations. In which case, it’s very easy to tell whether the claimants hospitalization is caused by active substance abuse. First, they run a tox screen. Second, it’s noted and coded differently in the medical records if it’s related to substance abuse. And if it is, even if you’re heading to dialysis (usually and easy yes) it’s not an allowance.

That said, people who used substances in the past, are clean and sober and have severe liver and kidney disease will be allowed.  Just like former (heck, current) smokers are allowed on lung disease. It’s impossible to look at someone headed to dialysis and say for certain how much was drugs and alcohol vs environmental vs generic. We don’t try. As long as you aren’t currently using.

My strong guess is that this person was allowed based on the “something else”.

And yes, people self medicate all sorts of things with drugs and alcohol.   And it’s easy to say “well that’s on them”. But these same people often have very limited access to health care and no access to mental health care.  Nothing made a proponent of universal healthcare more than working with disability claimants. Because you see the human toll everyday of not getting early detection and decent care.  It hurts society as a whole so much to let untreated diabetes or hypertension become strokes and amputations.  We pay in the end anyway. [/quote]

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