• 11
  • April
    2011

One question - whether or not someone is genuinely disabled under the eligibility requirements set forth by the Social Security Administration - is the question we should be asking in making arguments for or against the Social Security Disability benefits program.

The New York Times reports that "[p]rograms intended to steer people with more moderate disabilities back into jobs have managed to take only a small sliver of beneficiaries off the Social Security rolls." The Times continues by referring to a prediction that many commentators have been trumpeting for awhile now: that in 2018, just a handful of years from now, the Social Security Disability fund will be out of operating cash.

The New York Times also observes that "lawyers who solicit clients on television and on the Internet probably play a role" in the increasing numbers of people on the Social Security Disability rolls today. But lawyers are facilitators and advocates for those who are legitimately disabled. Marketing has little to do with whether or not someone is disabled.

Moreover, the person's underlying disabling condition - the condition that originally qualified them for benefits - has little to do with whether the person is using the program as a "shadow safety net," as many commentators have argued.

Has anyone considered that the reason "back-to-work" programs haven't been successful is, perhaps, because the people are actually disabled and cannot work? Even if afflicted with so-called "moderate" disabilities?

If it's hard enough for people with reasonable physical or mental fitness to find a job in the economic downturn of the last few years, it's certainly harder for those who have been collecting Social Security Disability benefits, because it has already been determined that they could not work for 12 months or longer (or the condition was likely to result in the person's death) - which is how someone qualifies for disability benefits in the first place.

So, in other words, anyone who qualifies for Social Security Disability benefits must have a pretty serious disabling condition, and picking yourself up by the bootstraps is a notion that can carry you only so far.

Source: Disabled, but Looking for Work