I had my court hearing today. (Updated w/ chart)

[ellennelle]

35. what a relief for you

as a psychologist, i see numerous applicants for disability benefits. after years of hearing the story of how no one gets approved on the first shot, i googled it. sure enough, 95% of first applicants get rejected; odds go to 50% on appeal, which i tell my clients, is better than vegas. i also remind them it's tax payers' dollars SSDI must be so stingy with, but most of them paid taxes into that fund. so it is NOT a handout; it's like any other insurance policy. NEVER FORGET THIS!!

[important distinction, however: this is no profiteering insurance company that has 'owners' who structure the revenue to benefit themselves the most. (this i count as an unpardonable sin that has no place whatsoever in basic humans needs, such as healthcare, education, water and utilities, food, shelter; yup, that basic socialist approach.) in contrast to SS and medicare, where the only folks who profit are all of us! with the government running it, that means it is WE THE PEOPLE who benefit! you know, US!]

and if i'm not mistaken, your disability benefit payments are back-dated to the date of your application. i well could be mistaken, tho; i'm not employed by SSDI, just contracted to contribute an objective analysis, which as a taxpayer and someone who at any point could have needed such assistance, in the past or in the future, i appreciate very much.

we are, after all, all in this together. i also share these sentiments with my clients, who - almost to each and every person i've seen for this, and that counts in the several hundreds - are deeply ashamed and frustrated that their disabilities limit their ability to be productive and self-sufficient. in all my years seeing these applicants, i have only encountered one or two folks i suspected of working the system. i'm sure those numbers are higher with other locations and professionals, but all in all, folks want to work, and they want to do so with dignity and safety. too many jobs are debilitating and brutal on the body; the poor especially cannot sustain these jobs, often more than one at once, and given so many of these jobs are on the front line of keeping our society running, we owe them at least this much. given my socialist bent, i'd say we owe them far far more than this, but i tend to recognize that a society is not only as strong as its weakest link, but that it is as a whole responsible for all the links, and moreover, that it will be judged by how it treats the least among us.

yup, jesus was the first socialist. and don't dismiss me on that count; i'm an atheist who practices buddhist meditation and is earning a masters in religious studies. fascinated by human belief systems that i am, and how anyone could count this program as a handout. like i said, it works like any insurance program, except once you receive benefits, you do not have to continue paying 'premiums'/taxes.

[much of this was written in response to a commented some heartless cretin who insisted this was a handout. good on whomever removed that comment!]