Disability Caucus 8/16/16: 'The Deserving' and A Starting Point
There's something that really pisses me off about this particular argument about people who deserve benefits and people who don't. That's one of the many topics I had to deal with when my mom and her partner visited. The guy is a real piece of work, let me tell you. Before I deleted my account, I argued with him quite a bit on facebook, especially when Bernie Sanders came up. I got the usual right-wing spitballs hurled at me like 'enabler', 'socialism doesn't work', the usual kind of shit you can easily dispel just by holding up a mirror. Or better yet, talking to them in person.
Online he comes off as a hardcore Republican and Trump supporter, but I've had conversations with him about Medicare for All and Guaranteed Income and he seemed to agree with the necessity and the arguments in favor of both. But during this weekend's visit he really said some things that made me want to punch something.
First he went on about how Americans endeavor to work themselves to death and how that makes us different from other countries. Of course, he was referring to those 'dirty socialist countries' rather than the Corporate Sweatshop Vassals where people work themselves to the bone, often for 2 dollars a day or less. Funnily enough, if the corporations and the billionaires who hold America by the balls could, they'd do the same here.
The second thing he said when the topic of Social Security came up was that I was 'deserving' and so many others scam the system because they don't wanna work. Funny, because there are just as many who would accuse me of the same without knowing my history. It is true that there are some people who do get it for crazy reasons, but instances of scamming the system are so few and far in between that they usually aren't even a blip on the radar.
Since the subject came up I decided to ask my mom about when the childhood benefits started. She also mentioned that when I was switched over to survivors after my dad died, there was no choice in the matter. They told her I'd be switched over at 18, but that didn't happen, which led to 10 denials in five years.
Either way some of the stuff my mom told me might be something to go on. I just need to find a way to get a hold of my birth records, the records regarding my childhood benefits and a good lawyer and I may be able to make a decent case. If there's anything else that I should do, please let me know in the comments.
See ya around,
Aspie
Comments
There may be more resources to help than you have found so far
I would check out what this service offers in terms of assistance:
One of the questions I would ask this group is if there are any groups which have pro-bono attorneys to assist with government disability claims. If you need to pay a lawyer yourself, you're going to lose a large chunk of whatever back (and some point of your future) payments. You may be able to learn specifically from this sort of group what criteria is accepted by the government so you can document those things in your circumstances. The trickiest part of filing/getting accepted is knowing what issues 'count' toward your being admitted to the program. I've gotten myself into SSDI twice without an attorney - I would bet there's assistance out there somewhere to help you navigate through successfully without expensive representation.
If by birth records you mean birth certificate, that should be relatively easy - the state where you were born should be able to produce a copy for you and it should be fairly easy to find the application form and get the info you need on the web.
With regard to your childhood benefit records, I had previously suggested you contact your congressperson's office - they have staff for EXACTLY this sort of help with federal records and offices. It is their job to help produce these records for you.
See what the Autism groups can offer in terms of assistance. I know folks who get a lot of assistance from them.
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Sorry you have to put up with such a relative.
I hate to say it, but "undeserving" is usually dog whistle for black or brown.
It does sound like you now have more to work with, so that's good.
How would you feel about links to these articles shared on Facebook? I think it might bring more understanding of these problems among a larger audience, but I don't want to share without your permission.
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Undeserving
I flipped out Friday when I got another form to fill out regarding Disability Determination Review from SSDI. We fill out the forms months ago due to another 3 year review. The form is over 40 pages of questions and medical, educational, doctor blah blah blah. So when I get a letter stating that SSI has requested DD to take a look and that another similar form be filled out.... I called the office.
I got a nice lady, I'm sure, on the phone but my question was: "Did I mess up on some form or report during the review? Is this form punitive?
No. It's just an extra step that happens every 300 client or so. But it's only every three years so it's no biggie. Just fill it out.
I stated that SSI was just ONE agency that requires, requests and reviews.
That's when I started to tear up and just be frustrated. I never yelled or anything was just really kinda scared that I may have messed up some fine print and fucked up my son's SSI which took several years of fighting to get my son's benefits to begin with.... Being a parent of a disabled person is hard enough with "extra step paperwork".
So she says, "My job is hard, too."
She then took it back.
Deserving... yeah.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Madness.
I would just love to put some of these people through what we go through year after year.
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.
First, this relative needs a swift kick
in the balls. Second, fraud yeah right, that fraud is perpetrated by professional criminals, ya know like Doctors....
From the DOJ (what an oxymoron, Dept of Justice, ya right)
It is not "the people" that worry me so much about fraud, but the professionals that engage in it, and it gets blamed on us, which results in a million pages (seemingly) of paperwork to fill out, and not to mention if you make a mistake on your paper work, not only will your application be slowed down, you might be prosecuted for it. Gee, and your doctors drag their feet filling out their portion of the fricking paper work, delaying the time to get your DESERVING benefits.
My heart goes out to your and yours. I had a nightmare experience when my wife was dying from cancer trying to get her on SSDI. Oh, and my healthcare insurance company, United Healthcare, continued to bill me for almost 9 months, after my wife died, and then placed my on a different insurance plan, without my consent, even when the ACA had it on record not to. It took another few months to get my god damn money back from those vultures. I damn near got evicted over it.
Healthcare should be a human right for all people, not a fricking profit center, for vulture capitalists, full of meaningless paperwork, that does nothing but slow done an already slow, meaningless, demeaning paperwork filled nightmare.
Of course there's this
[video:https://youtu.be/cSCBrenXPao]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
Jesus H. Christ. My State's Governor (Rick Scott, FL) must be
giving these bastards pointers on how to pull off this kind of shit. Florida is a literal no-man's land for people with disabilities with Scott's disastrous tenure still going on.
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.