Social Security disability on verge of insolvency

[I_B_Perky]

Social Security disability on verge of insolvency... dumpmonkies will go bonkers. The dump hasn't read it yet. MSNBC reporting it from the AP.

And here I thought the fund was solvent.  

How's that hope and change working for ya now, democrats?


Dumpmonkies worst nightmare
 

Oops! Spoke too soon. The dump did notice it. Pretty big bonfire.

dump goes nuts

[DumbAss Tanker]

Social Security Retirement is pretty solvent, at least in the short term, since it's funded in a predictable way by payroll taxes through every employee's working lifetime, and the payout is predictable with standard actuarial methods.  Social Security Disability is an unfunded handout that more and more people have been jiggering their way into every year, with no source of its own funding except directly or indirectly sucking it out of either the retirement fund or the Treasury's general revenue stream.

[Doc]

Social Security Retirement is pretty solvent, at least in the short term, since it's funded in a predictable way by payroll taxes through every employee's working lifetime, and the payout is predictable with standard actuarial methods.  Social Security Disability is an unfunded handout that more and more people have been jiggering their way into every year, with no source of its own funding except directly or indirectly sucking it out of either the retirement fund or the Treasury's general revenue stream.

Yep....plus the definition of "disability" has been broadened to include things like:

Alcoholism
Drug addiction
Chronic obesity
Depression
Bipolar Syndrome

Pretty much anyone who can find a doctor to sign off on it, and an attorney to fight the rejections will end up on it.

On and on......instead of aiding the truly disabled, it has become just another form of welfare.

doc

[thundley4]

Yep....plus the definition of "disability" has been broadened to include things like:

Alcoholism
Drug addiction
Chronic obesity
Depression
Bipolar Syndrome

Pretty much anyone who can find a doctor to sign off on it, and an attorney to fight the rejections will end up on it.

On and on......instead of aiding the truly disabled, it has become just another form of welfare.

doc

Don't they allow parents to get their children it for ridiculous things also?

[Eupher]

Yep....plus the definition of "disability" has been broadened to include things like:

Alcoholism
Drug addiction
Chronic obesity
Depression
Bipolar Syndrome

Pretty much anyone who can find a doctor to sign off on it, and an attorney to fight the rejections will end up on it.

On and on......instead of aiding the truly disabled, it has become just another form of welfare.

doc

This is something that baffles me.

A guy I knew had had bypass surgery 10 years ago or so when he was in his late 30's. He continued to smoke, which is, of course, proscribed behavior if they've taken a vein out of your leg and rebuilt your coronary arteries.

Fast forward to December 2009 when the guy develops heart problems (again), pneumonia, and lands in the hospital. (Keep in mind that 3 years or so he graduated from the state penal system and is unemployable.)

He mucks around trying to earn enough to pay his child support and his grocery bills (not to mention his cigarettes), but puts in a claim to SS to be put on disability. Ultimately he succeeds, the process taking only about 3 months or so.

Six months later he dies of a heart attack (this past May), never having quit the habit.  

Lest this thing sounds like a cigarette-bashing, rest assured the issue has more to do with the kinds of things that "qualify" under SS disability any more. Amazing....

[I_B_Perky]

Social Security Retirement is pretty solvent, at least in the short term, since it's funded in a predictable way by payroll taxes through every employee's working lifetime, and the payout is predictable with standard actuarial methods.  Social Security Disability is an unfunded handout that more and more people have been jiggering their way into every year, with no source of its own funding except directly or indirectly sucking it out of either the retirement fund or the Treasury's general revenue stream.

I didn't know that. I thought it was all the same thing. Learn something new everyday!!!

[cmypay]

Don't they allow parents to get their children it for ridiculous things also?

Yes, children can be qualified for SSDI. The intent when it was created was for children who needed a tremendous amount of expensive care and would likely never be able to hold a job or live on their own, such as a severely brain damaged child. Today, somehow, it has been expanded to include such things as "severe ADHD."  This is a treatable condition and in no way would preclude a child from either holding a job or living on their own when they are of age.

[catsmtrods]

Here we have lawyers in TV comercials that can get it for you! "You have enough to worry about, let us handle the govt" They get a cut too?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Here we have lawyers in TV comercials that can get it for you! "You have enough to worry about, let us handle the govt" They get a cut too?

Of course.  In VA and SS hearings, the percentage is actually limited so they can't clean out the poor bastard client (Used to be 20%, instead of the 33% or 40% they might get away with in a personal injury case in some places, don't know if it's still that or not though).  Quite a chunk of change actually, anyway, and the firms that specialize in it use specialist paralegals for almost everything.  Not that the heavy reliance on said paralegals vs. full attorneys is necessarily reflected in the firm's billable hours log all the time...