7:34pm August 2, 2013

“To qualify for disability, you first need to be medically certified as disabled, which is a lengthy process with a serious backlog, particularly for disabled veterans. Once you’re determined ‘disabled enough’ to qualify for assistance, a series of checkboxes determine how disabled you are and what kinds of benefits you get. For example, if you need an aide or a personal assistant, how many hours a week you get? Should you have enough to pay for multiple visits a day, or should you be allowed to sit in your own waste between toileting sessions? These are the kinds of cold, clinical calculations made by the people in charge of disability benefits. Have a problem with them? Sure, go ahead and appeal. Enjoy the wait.”

—

In which I point out that getting disability benefits is actually kind of hard. (via se -smith)

fucking thank you.
although this barely scrapes the surface of the hellish process…

(via wheeliewifee)

“But, but my cousin-in-law’s dog’s drinking buddy knows this guy who is totally scamming the system. He didn’t want to work so he went to the SSA office and said, “I have a headache, give me money,“ and now he gets $3000 a month. He just bought twi brand-new Harleys! True fact. No wonder 90% of people on disability are faking cheaters.” If I hadn’t known how the system really is, or not had $2000 left in the bank for a tilt-table test and a neuropsych exam I would’ve ended up homeless. Even my parents thought that I was bullshitting. These seemingly eternal, factually incorrect tropes get repeated ad nauseum in the media while I’m not sure that I’ve even seen or heard one TV or radio report about someone who was actually disabled who was having trouble with the SSA because they were poor and/or because the system is needlessly, irrationally stringent. (Kiss my ass John Stossel.)

(youneedacat starts here)

I am continually amazed how easy it was for me to get SSI. I think the stars must’ve lined up just right.

Other things that I think helped me:

Having a documented record of employment failure even in jobs gotten for me by my special ed school designed for disabled people to succeed at.

Having my mother along to do most of the talking. People tend to believe things more coming from third parties. I don’t know why.

Already having huge amounts if documentation of my diagnoses.

Having that mysterious appearance quality that makes many people assume severe cognitive impairment on sight. As in when I could talk, my ability to speak sometimes startled people. And now my ability to type.

In fact my biggest problem during the interview was convincing them I was capable of handling money and didn’t need a representative payee.

I’ve only gotten forced to get re-checked once. Getting re-checked had no rhyme or reason. Some people with absolute permanent disabilities get it every couple years. Some people with temporary disabilities never get it. They sprung an IQ test on me with no warning at all. And asked my staff a bunch of questions about what I could do. They expressed surprise at how well I did on the test. I assumed that, as in the past, my IQ had shown up as at least above average if not gifted. But actually it showed up as 85. What they actually expected it to be I can only guess. They took pains to note that my actual ability to do stuff is far below what they’d have guessed based on my IQ.

It doesn’t matter that I know IQ is meaningless. It doesn’t matter that I know being disabled doesn’t mean worthless. Getting evaluated for benefits is grueling. I went home and cried the first time, and the second time I landed in a psych ward after being PTSD triggered at the interview.

They basically sit there and rub your nose in every possible thing you’re not able to do. They make you describe it in excruciating detail. They make you feel totally and completely worthless in ways that have to be felt to be believed.

I hate disability evaluations of all kinds. They make me feel about two inches tall. And they don’t even care how they make you feel. They treat everyone like a potential fraud, even though the actual rate of fraud is extremely low. People die all the time because of being find able to work.

And as disturbing as it is what’s going on in the UK, a lot of what they’re doing over there is what they’ve been doing to us in the USA all along. Some of it’s worse over there, but some of it is exactly what we’ve been dealing with forever. It frightens me the way when things get tough, disabled people are expendable. Even in countries with excellent track records on disability.

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