Disability Caucus Open Thread 10/17/16: Square One

Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Tue, 10/18/2016 - 3:45pm

Whelp...after my meeting with Social Security, I'm back to square one. Literally. Since my childhood records were destroyed many moons ago I now have to apply for disability as an adult.

So now I'll have to face 10 more denials in five more years despite my well documented medical history. Even if I do go for legal representation. Fuck this shit.

See ya around,
Aspie

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Submitted by Lily O Lady on Tue, 10/18/2016 - 4:24pm

You have my sympathy! We're trying to get our adult

Aspie son on SSI. He wasn't diagnosed until his teens. He is intellectually gifted and learned effortlessly, but as he grew people found his behavior to be too far outside the norm. When he was in third grade the schools decided he was ADD even though his grades and test scores were exceptional.

We parted company with the schools, but it's been a difficult and painful journey. Many of his emotional issues stem from bad experiences with bullying and bad encounters with the system.

I'm not expecting a good outcome. I guess we'll have to hire one of those social security lawyers, which bugs me. Lawyers get rich while people on SSI struggle.

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Tue, 10/18/2016 - 4:37pm

I could say pretty much the same.

And my mother, being as stubborn as she was, refused to accept that anything was wrong. Every now and then she'd ask, 'Come on, why the hell can't you just be normal like all the other kids?' That whole schtick really got bad in my teen years. That in itself, among other things, deserves its own diary.

—

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Tue, 10/18/2016 - 6:09pm

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with your mom. I tried

to let my son be himself, but the world had its own ideas. I wasn't able to protect him from bullies, so that a kid who loved to be outside has become a somewhat reclusive adult. I homeschooled him after third grade rather than getting the school to appropriately meet his needs.

I hope you can get your issues with Social Security resolved. Hang in there.

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 10/18/2016 - 11:10pm

Lily O Lady

SSI has less stringent rules then SSDI and all I needed was my doctor to write about what type of problems I had and I got qualified. I wish I had known that before I got a lawyer since she got some of my back pay.
And while you are waiting to qualify, you get $228/month then your back pay on top of that.
They ask what type of assets he has and how much money.
My suggestion is to try for SSI without a lawyer first.
SS is much harder to qualify for. I had 5 doctors saying that I was unemployable along with my MRI that showed all types of problems with my back and the judge just yawned.
I tried for 5 years and didn't get it. Then when things got much worse I didn't qualify because I hadn't been working.
And I didn't get a COLA raise this year because they base part of it on the cost of gas.
Many people on SS , SSDI and SSI don't have a car because they can't afford the upkeep, insurance or gas.
Next year we get a tad over $3.00/month. I don't know what I will do with that windfall.
Sigh. Those stupid assed congress members get all kinds of perks, per diems and housing allowances while most of them are f'cking millionaires and should have to pay their own way.
Plus the bastards keep looking for ways to cut our benefits because they think we eat too well.
I bet that they spend more money at one dinner then most people get in food stamps each month.
But hey, those rich people and corporations are paying to much taxes and need tax breaks and subsidies, right?m
And those foreign countries need billions in aid so that the corporations can do business in those countries.
Am I pissed? You betcha I am.
The people in our government suck!

—

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Wed, 10/19/2016 - 2:05pm

They would rather see private charities do this than the

government, but those are a rip off. I'm sure a lot of their money comes from those of modest means. This creates big salaries for the technocrats who run them and spotty help for those who are ostensibly its raison d'etre. As far as I'm concerned, charities are just jobs programs for the already well off.

It reminds me of a surrealistic story I read my senior year in high school French. It was about rationing in France under the Nazis.

In the story "useful" citizens were given a full ration each month, but less desirable citizens were only given rations to last for part of the month. The protagonist belonged to the second group. He wondered what was supposed to happen to him when his rations ran out. Was he supposed to just disappear? Of course that's exactly what happened. When their rations resumed, people would reappear until the rations ran out again.

Soon people were having parties on their disappearance days. I don't remember how the story ended, but it illustrates how those with power view the lives of those they control. They have little understanding of how we live, nor do they really care.

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by elenacarlena on Tue, 10/18/2016 - 11:06pm