comment: >
  
  Does it matter which state you live in when apply for disability?
context: The purposeful construction of impassable hurdles for social safety nets is some next level dystopian shit. >
  
  Social murder >
  
  Cruelty is the point. >
  
  
  He had made it through four years of denials and appeals, and Robert Heard was finally before a Social Security judge who would decide whether he qualified for disability benefits. Two debilitating strokes had left the 47-year-old electrician with halting speech, an enlarged heart and violent tremors.
  There was just one final step: A vocational expert hired by the Social Security Administration had to tell the judge if there was any work Heard could still do despite his condition. Heard was stunned as the expert canvassed his computer and announced his findings: He could find work as a nut sorter, a dowel inspector or an egg processor — jobs that virtually no longer exist in the United States.
  [...]
  But while the judge agreed that Heard had multiple, severe impairments, he denied him benefits, writing that he had “job opportunities” in three occupations that are nearly obsolete and agreeing with the expert’s dubious claim that 130,000 positions were still available sorting nuts, inspecting dowels and processing eggs.
  [...]
  The jobs are spelled out in an exhaustive publication known as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. The vast majority of the 12,700 entries were last updated in 1977. The Department of Labor, which originally compiled the index, abandoned it 31 years ago in a sign of the economy’s shift from blue-collar manufacturing to information and services. >
  
  What about challenging them on the claim that "he had 'job opportunities' in three occupations" by asking them to produce job postings for those jobs? >
  
  you can't.  my mom dealt with SS disability for 5 years before hers was approved, and they came up with 3 jobs she could do, 3 times over, just like this guy, and she had to appeal it 4 times thru her lawyer because those jobs didn't physically exist anymore.  She finally asked for a different judge, and the judge finally granted it after the same bullshit.  It cost her 5 years, and 12000 in lawyers fees to get her disability benefits.  when the lawyer started filing paperwork to get challenge the constitutionality of the list of jobs, she was approved.  this took 5 years.  5 years too long.  the system was broken by republicans in the 1970's, and was done that way on purpose to make it impossible to get benefits you pay for and earned. >
  
  That lawyer did her a solid. That sounds like way more than 12k worth of attorneys fees. >
  
  They usually do these as a percentage, and only collect if they win... >
  
  If they are a Disability Attorney they only collect when the disability is approved. It's max of 25% and $6000.00 >
  
  I don't know where you got the $6,000 cap, but they can charge whatever they want, and yes he did indeed have to wait until she won. Super nice guy though knew how to work the system really well. >
  
  Her case took 5 years and five appeals. My guess is that he petitioned to allow his fee to increase, I don't blame him. In my opinion, it's well worth the cost for my mom. My mother also believes he was well worth the cost. >
  
  I agree! The whole system is so screwed up. >
  
  This is an excuse - the system is designed to make it harder to get help, which is the fundamental problem. Don't get me wrong, by all means fix it, but it's worth a note even with Republican desperation to justify witch hunts against safety nets, the rate of fraud continues to be so low as to outcost the very thing they're hunting for. >
  
  War of attrition. >
  
  Government services in the US are grossly neglected and underfunded. I remember when the pandemic first hit and a lot of people got laid off/furloughed, the unemployment website was constantly crashing and people were experiencing 8 hour wait times just to talk to a representative. That was a hot fucking mess. I can't wait for the same thing to happen during our next crisis. >
  
  People (voters, taxpayers) refuse to pay government workers market rates for wages.  I work in state government and we've had positions open for literally years because they are 50% below market rate, so we end up having to hire contractors at 3x the wage instead. >
  
  Was this always the case to pay considerably below market rate? Or is it more recent decades? I feel like so much of our government relies on civil sacrifice and people who feel a sense of duty. It's just that we have gone from the WW2 generation who believed in the United States, to Baby Boomers who think the biggest problem with the United States is government and have all but destroyed local and federal government agencies. >
  
  It has been getting worse for about 20 years in my state.
  We used to have a defined pension plan and guaranteed retirement benefits helped retain people who could have moved to the private sector for more money today.  We then moved to a 401(b) which is basically a normal retirement account like private companies have.
  So now, we make less money than private industry but have the same retirement as private industry.
  Skilled workers - people with professional designations - are in more demand than ever.  When we interview actuaries they are also interviewing with companies and governments around the world, especially now that work-from-home is much more accepted.
  In demand workers are choosing between a stable and low paying government job or a very high paying job they can do from anywhere in the world. >
  
  Got ya, that's unfortunate. It seems like everything is slowly getting worse over the past few decades.  
  I know in my field working for the government only pays about 60% of a starting salary for non government jobs in the same field. The government jobs also had much higher requirements than the private practice jobs, despite offering way less money, benefits, and time off. >
  
  I did this job for 17 years, absolutely true.  In order to deny someone you had to cite 3 jobs the person would still be capable of doing, and the jobs were from 70s, infuriating. >
  
  Typewriter Repair Technician
  Laserdisc Sales Representative
  Cassette Rewinder
  Flip Phone Flipper >
  
  Except for the first one, those would be too recent.
  Try 8track tape seller. Mail order film developer of photos. Single landline seller to replace party lines.
  My grandmother had a landline that never got disconnected from a party line in the 1980s, so this is not a far fetched scenario. >
  
  Two Strokes and they denied me Social Security is a joke >
  
  This country is a joke too. >
  
  Right they say it’s supposed to be the greatest country in the world I don’t see it   I see the country that wants fuck over everybody that they can >
  
  Your honor, this man could still be a garden hermit according to this list of occupations from 1858. >
  
  The 60 minutes episode almost 10 years ago was brutal. There still is a shortage of ALJ, staff and medical experts. They basically decide at 1st hearing level if it’s cost effective to approve now or wait until you quit process. 
  It’s a broken system: process and personnel starved. >
  
  Honestly, I don't think it's as insidious as that. The real problem is there is NO uniform criteria across the ALJs.
  It's known in my city what your odds are based upon which judge is assigned to the case. One has a crazy high approval rate and the other crazy low. Only MDs should be making these calls, not judges. >
  
  The first two steps in the SSI/DIB process are primarily driven by DO/MD and PhD/PsyD evaluations of the applicants medical record. (Step 1 is in initial review, at which point the claim can be approved or denied.  Step 2 is reconsideration of a denial by different evaluators.)
  The ALJ hearing and decision happen only after those two steps.  At that point, the claimant basically has to prove that those medical experts were wrong.  Then there’s an appeal to the Appeals Council.  And finally appeals up the federal courts chain (trial court, court of appeals, Supreme Court).
  Once you get to federal court, the standard of review is tough.  You effectively have to prove that no evidence supported the ALJ’s (or Appeals Council’s) decision. >
  
  Literally had a judge say they believed I was disabled, then they had a job specialist state in court that there were no jobs they thought I would be able to handle. Months later I got a letter stating they found a job that would suit me... I could make corks in a cork factory. Literally just making up jobs. Now it's been so long I've worked now I have to get a job to qualify to reapply... And that folks is how they make sure people don't get it. >
  
  I thought that back in the 1980s when I worked around people who could/should be applying for Social Security Disability that the question was whether their were jobs they could perform within some reasonable distance.   If the only jobs sorting nuts were many states away and you were kind of too old to relocate, the existence of nut sorting jobs wasn't held against you.  Does anyone know about this? >
  
  They have to exist in the local economy in theory.
  If you're over 50 they have to have "little vocational adjustment" and if over 60 they don't do a job search >
  
  Isn't this age discrimination? >
  
  The concept with the "little vocational adjustment" was a reasonable cost/benefit of the time and cost invested in the adjustment compared to the remaining years of work. >
  
  I was told during my first and second court date for SSDI by a vocational expert that I could be a hotel cleaner. I broke down crying the first time, as with my autism and bipolar 2 its very hard to argue...anything without breaking down completely. The second time I had a lawyer, who argued my points for me to the vocational expert, and by the end of the session the vocational expert agreed that somebody with the set of challenges I face would not be able to work. Its clear in the recording that they said and agreed with this.
  The judge, in his decision, said that I didn't face those challenges, so I wasn't the kind of person my lawyer was talking about. Through some twisted logic I was denied because the judge argued my lawyer wasn't talking about me when explaining my disabilities.
  Hope I explained that correctly. My appeal is likely going to be 6-9 months from now and if denied, which is likely as nobody gets approved their "first" time, I'll have to start over. Been going through this process for a year and a half now. Running out of money. >
  
  This is why I didn't bother with appeals when I was denied for severe sciatica. I haven't been able to work in almost four years, but there's no way the social security administration is going to grant me disability for a little ole thing like constant, excruciating, debilitating pain. >
  
  They will in 99% of the cases deny the first appeal. But you need lots of documentation of your condition to get approved - it doesn't all have to all be medical documentation. You can keep a symptom diary (preferably hand written) and letters from employers and others stating what they have observed about your disabilities and your absences. Also documentation from any low income services you've turned to for help. 
  Even then it takes a long time. Some people finally get approved, then die just a short time later. >
  
  So much for the myth that it’s very easy to rely on welfare money as a substitute for working. >
  
  Every time someone talks about how lazy people just live on state aid I ask them “do you have ANY idea how fucking difficult it is to get approved for ANY state funded aid?”
  EBT is kinda sorta easy but the rest is next to impossible with all the hoops and waiting you have to deal with. >
  
  Yep, the same people who talk about “government making it so easy not to work” usually have never been in a situation where they needed the safety net. >
  
  Bingo. >
  
  Half a century. Half a fucking century. >
  
  They don’t want to give us the money we’ve paid into the program. >
  
  Seems like every goverment form... Are you a disabled rail road worker.... Why do they only care if you worked on a railroad ? >
  
  We will be fixing this shit before I need Social Security benefits. Let’s do this, Gen X!