A Picture of Disability

I answer the phone and a lady demands to know how her disability case is going. I can tell she is disgruntled and ready to pick a fight. Apparently her neighbor, who has "absolutely nothing" wrong with him just won his disability. We always judge situations by what we can see and so many people do not look disabled. They aren’t in a wheelchair, don’t have artificial limbs, aren’t blind, or have obvious mental retardation. There is no tape measure for disability.  You must take into account all medical problems and how their combined effect will impact a person’s ability to work. Disability cannot be determined by focusing on one issue.

In the past 15 years the number of applications for disability has almost doubled. The very word “disability” is a loaded word these days. All day long I hear things like: I need my disability, I applied for my disability. He doesn't have a disability. What exactly is a disability? 

President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, and the Social Security Board (SSB) was born.  The SSB was renamed the Social Security Administration (SSA) on July 16, 1946.  It was established to “develop a comprehensive social insurance system covering all major personal economic hazards with a special emphasis on unemployment and old age insurance.”  Over time, this program has grown to include disability insurance: Title II which is Retirement, Survivor’s and Disability Insurance (RSDI) and Title XVI which is Supplemental Security Income (SSI). When people work, they pay Social Security taxes and after so many quarters of paying these taxes, you become "insured" for disability purposes. If you have not worked or are not insured for disability purposes, you must qualify for SSI in order to receive any disability benefits.  The rules for SSI are all financial and very stringent.  The most money you can draw under SSI at the present time is a whopping $8,529.00 a year if you are single or $12,792.55 if you are married.  Many people do not qualify for the maximum amount because they may live with a family member. If you have to live on SSI benefits, you will live in poverty.  

The Social Security Administration defines disability as an inability to work, and you must be totally disabled from all work.  There are no benefits for partial or short-term disability (less than one year).  There is a five-step evaluation process used to determine if adults qualify for disability.  You are evaluated based on the work you did before, your current work activity, your medical condition and how it affects your ability to work, whether or not you can adjust to other work because of your medical condition; and whether your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or to result in death. They also evaluate your education and literacy.  

Many times clients will keep focusing on their physical problems which are not that severe, but after dealing with them for some time, I discover they have some profound psychological problems. Why is it easier to admit that our back is broken and not our mind? Our minds can break under the pressure of life just as easily as a bone. Mental disabilities are very real.  People who criticize the disability program say that if you are physically able, then your mental capacity should have no bearing on the matter. Having a strong and sound mind is just as necessary to your ability to work as your physical health.

Education is also a very important factor in determining whether or not a person is disabled.  Let’s face it, some people are just smarter than others.  We had a client who was at his hearing and Mr. Diggs asked him if there was any job he thought he could do with his set of medical problems, and he said, “I think I could do what he’s doing.” and pointed to the Judge.  Not only are there people who are smarter, there are families who are richer and able to spend more money on education.  I knew a man who was encouraging his grandson to stay in college and he said, “From the neck down, I can hire a man for about $10.00 an hour or less, but from the neck up it gets a lot more expensive.”  Our mental abilities play a very important role in our ability to work. What causes one person to be disabled, may barely slow another person down.  The more you look at the issue of disability, you realize, that defining disability is not that easy.

• Selected Data From Social Security’s Disability Program. Social Security: The Official Website of the U.S. Social Security Admnistration. March 29, 2013. www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/dibStat.html
• Social Security History.  Social Security: The Official Website of the U.S. Social Security Administration. April 2, 2013. http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/orghist.html
• SSI Federal Payment Amounts For 2013. Social Security: The Official Website of the U.S. Social Security Administration. April 2, 2013. http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/COLA/SSI.html 
• Definition of Social Security disability. Social Security: The Official Website of the U.S. Social Security Administration. April 2, 2013. http://ssacusthelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/152/~/definition-of-social-security-disability

Why is Disability Really on the Rise?

Social Security has been a hot button issue for at least the past two major elections.  It does not matter if you are passionately for it or passionately against it; this government benefit likely affects us all.  This American Life, a radio program of Chicago Public Radio, recently aired a program called “Trends with Benefits” which discussed Social Security disability benefits and how the number has nearly doubled over the last 15 years.  Planet Money’s Chana Joffe-Walt spent six months investigating disability and focused on this one town in Hale County, Alabama, where 1 in 4 of the population are receiving Social Security disability benefits. Despite her in-depth study, it still seems she failed to glean one very important benefit of Social Security disability: the fact that it provides medical insurance. 

My husband is a lawyer and has been representing clients in their appeals for Social Security Disability for over 30 years.  I have worked with him for 20 years and have seen hundreds of cases of disability ranging from the severe to the not so severe.  Yes, there have been a very few people who obtained their disability, and I was not completely convinced that they were completely disabled, but many, many more failed to obtain benefits when they really should have won.  I talk with these people multiple times throughout this process, help in obtaining their medical records, help fill out paperwork and file their appeals online.  Through the years, I have come to realize several problems with the entire disability process.  The next few posts will be about Social Security disability from my viewpoint of 20 years experience working with these types of cases.  

What I have discovered that Joffe-Walt did not is that healthcare reform is absolutely necessary in order to change the future of Social Security disability.  I feel it is the key to reducing applications, reducing payments, and shortening the payout of current payments.  I have seen many people who have been forced to file for disability instead of working in order to obtain medical insurance.  Claimants are forced to remain on disability and not return to work, because of medical insurance.  Without healthcare reform, the number of applications and amount of money spent on disability benefits will only get worse. 

In the next four posts, I plan to answer the following questions:  What is disability? Why is healthcare and medical insurance so important? What causes disabilities? Why do disability benefits seem to be permanent?