Hitt, I hope you got home safely.
I just need to vent a bit about my least favorite subject these days, the Social Security Disability administration. I spent several hours Saturday night filling out yet another form on my gf's dying nephew. Stip things considering is current situation, like what are his hobbies and has his disability effected his ability to do those hobbies. Fortunately at the end of the 10 pages or so, they gave a section where you could add other factors. That was a section I could vent some of my frustrations and I too advantage of the space.
I had also received a letter from someone from SSA that was unable to contact him asking him or someone to contact them. Unfortunately, the letter wasn't signed. As it turned out, it was a nice fellow who had already received the paperwork I had faxed in on Saturday night so the conversation went well and I feel I have someone that will really work to get this resolved, hopefully before I can no longer let him know I got it straightened out.
Anyway, one thing that bothered me was the fact that, initially, both SSDI (disability
insurance for those that had enough work periods to qualify) and SSI, for those that didn't work enough to collect. He worked all but a period of about a year when he was out of work from the time he left high school and it made no
sense that SSI was applied for since he didn't qualify for it having savings in an IRA.
This is what blew my mind. The agent explained the SS process and said, many times, SS personnel will file for both SSDI and SSI because it's EASIER to get approved for SSI. Now SSDI is paid for by workers and their employers. I think something like 1% of the withholdings for SS are to fund SSDI. SSI is funded via taxes, paid by those that work. So in effect, Justin not only paid for hiss SSDI benefit but also paid for a portion of the payments to SSI recipients via his income taxes.
What this means is he paid into the government, all his life, so that when he needed to collect, those that hadn't worked would get preference over his needs. Now I understand that some of those SSI recipients really, due to their health situations need help. However I also know a lot getting covered just have learned how to game the system. What bugs me is that they don't really pay attention to the individual cases from the start. They use a logic tree, as my discussion taught me.
They didn't look at his diagnosis or prognosis. He fell in the under 50 group that basically aren't reviewed at all. There was some sort of medical interview done early, but, generally, they deny the claims and send them to a judge review. That can take up to 2 years. The fellow basically that the system generally works, but some cases like Justin's just fall
thru the cracks. Great!
Rant over....
