SSI/SSDI ..'reforms' vs reality

[undergroundpanther]

History of SSDI,and those eligibility Reviews *** my emphasis.

A number of changes were put forward. ***State DDS offices were told to keep a record of specific individuals who might "recover" and thus no longer be eligible. The ongoing journals kept on certain individuals are known as "continuing disability investigations" -- CDIs.*** Before 1980 it was assumed that evidence of "recovery" would be difficult for the DDS examiner to obtain, ***but now it was suggested that the individual receiving the benefits have the burden of proof*** in these cases.
Since ***many of the people undergoing continuing disability investigations were not capable of managing their own affairs, and since many people -- disabled and not -- do not understand the bureaucratic process, a number of people would be removed through this process, which would have the effect of cutting the cost of the program.*** (DISGUSTING)

In January, 1983, Reagan signed the new law, professing all the while that he had always been fully supportive of "truly deserving" disabled people. (there's that social darwinist who's DESERVING crap again.)

Although the national debt disappeared in the Clinton administration, it has resurfaced during President George W. Bush's term in office. ***Since SSDI brings in more money than it pays out, every dollar not paid out is seen as a dollar reduction in the national debt (even though such thinking is not correct, because every dollar not paid out must remain in a trust fund for future use).*** Given the simple-minded way in which the politics of the budget is reported by the media, this is a good public relations reason to attempt to reduce the SSDI rolls, even if it is not realistic.

http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/0302/0302ft5.html

***Social Darwinist attitudes and beliefs ,Profiling and bigotry is rampant in SS...***



Koch family greedy claws in the SSI/SSDI pie

Today Social Security is a bulwark against penury for the elderly. It provides 50% or more of retirement support for 2/3 of beneficiaries, and 100% of support for 1/3.7

In 1978, a young Congressional candidate picked up the theme of crisis. Stumping at the Midland Texas Country Club, George W. Bush said:

“ will be bust in 10 years unless there are some changes…The ideal solution would be… to invest the money the way they feel.”8

Like the WMDs, the 1988 Social Security bust never manifested. You’d think Bush would be embarrassed, but 20 years after the crisis-that-wasn’t, he’s still banging the privatization gong.

There’s plenty more scary talk where that came from, a steady stream of policy papers and opinion pieces, dutifully parroted by the media. The think tanks that produce them are funded, not by any grass-roots demanding Social Security reform, but by a handful of big private fortunes, some well-known: Mellon-Scaife9, DuPont10, Coors.11

Other funders are less famous, but their fortunes are equally large. The Koch brothers, inheritors of one of the world’s largest private oil fortunes, fund what’s probably the most important source of privatization propaganda: the Cato Institute.12 Incidentally, George Bush’s sister Doro Bush Koch, is reportedly married to a Koch cousin.13

http://dissidentvoice.org/2007/11/shock-therapy-ideas-that-are-lying-around/

http://books.google.com/books?id=_rHip4ikTQIC&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=disability+SSI+SSDI++cutoffs+as+reform&source=bl&ots=J78-pirwDR&sig=WphMzCY7rd0HB8AvbFEjSEwrFBw&hl=en&ei=kUl9TIK-NsHflgfAwrDsCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/the-disability-mess/


Disabled people taken off SSI/SSDI because social security mistook them for felons..A lawsuit won back their incomes.
http://www.freedomdisability.com/social-security-disability-benefits-restored-through-california-lawsuit/
http://library.findlaw.com/1999/Mar/1/130962.html
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/25/3/694?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2655730/The-Inadequacies-of-Health-Care-Policy-for-Disabled-Persons-in-the-US


The Social Security Administration has devised a plan to divide and conquer.

Within the past three years, the administration, in its campaign to reduce cost no matter at whose expense, has proposed, one at a time, a series of regulations to eliminate disability benefits for several categories of disabled persons.The campaign began with passage of Public Law 104-121, effective March 29, 1996, withdrawing payment of benefits from substance abusers, a group particularly unpopular and in a climate hostile to rehabilitation.
Swelled with its success, the Social Security Administration immediately went after immigrants - legal immigrants - and passed public Law 104-193, effective Aug. 22, 1996. Section 402 prohibits legal immigrants from receiving Supplemental Security Income benefits. The provisions of this law - so draconian that 95-year-old nursing home patients who had been legal residents for 50 years were going to be tossed out on the streets - provoked even the heartiest conservatives to call for an amendment to have the law repealed, and it will now only be applied to new immigrants.


TennCare
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jan/07/tenncare-asks-relief-long-running-lawsuit/
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9019811
http://www.mcil.org/mcil/log/2006/032706s.asp
Disabled refugees cut off
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-11-10-refugee-benefit_x.htm
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/30/1798834/disabled-refugees-face-loss-of.html

More stuff
http://www.frontiernet.net/~lindaf1/SOCIALSECURITYDISABILITYNIGHTMARE.html
http://monthlyreview.org/0405russell.htm
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/social-security-disability-blog/all/explore/they%27re+trying+to+stop+my+benefits/

Food stamps but damn interesting perspective
http://hubpages.com/hub/FOOD-STAMP-BENEFITS-NOT-FOR-THE-LAZY-OR-FAINT-HEARTED


A lawsuit about Corporate exploitation of SSDI by sending in THOUSANDS of fraudulent claims!!

Loughren's attorney, Colette G. Matzzie of Phillips & Cohen in Washington, said trial testimony supported allegations that Unum's business practices resulted in the filing of unlawful SSDI applications and that in some instances the insurer even knew its claimants had the ability to work as defined by Social Security regulations.

The U.S. attorney's office for the District of Massachusetts did not respond to an e-mail asking whether it planned to intervene in the case now that a jury has found that Unum sent fraudulent claims to the government.
Snip

In that case, former Cigna Corp. employee Dawn Barrett says the insurer and its wholly owned disability insurance subsidiary Life Insurance Company of North America sent thousands of false claims to the SSDI program from 1997 to 2004.
http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/h/hcf/20081029/20081029_loughren.html

http://www.allsupinc.com/

Rep payee abuse
http://www.olrs.ohio.gov/newsletter-jan-10#reppayee
http://www.olrs.ohio.gov/newsletter-jan-10#exploit

[bobbolink]

1. Panth! You are a TREASURE! What the hell would we ever do without you?!

All of this is what we have been looking for, and what we are needing!


Get off your white horse, and take a BIIIIG bow! :applause:

[Monique1]

3. I was hoping you saw this Bobbolink

You just received your treasure chest. :bounce: :bounce:

[bobbolink]

4. Please, feel free to notify me if you come across thread like this!

I can't catch them all.... and this one is a blockbuster!

[undergroundpanther]

7. duh,duh,double post

[undergroundpanther]

9. aww bobbie

I thank YOU Bobbie!! 'cause you are tiger, magnificent in your heart..

Once I hit on the right phrases to search with,I tweaked it to find more good stuff.
I can read really fast,so I read and picked the best among what I found,posted it here.

I might not been around as much got changes going on..but I still lurk here. Bobbie what you do here, kicks my fuzzy ass.seriously.
I ain't leaving,not until I see lasting changes,spreading out into the reality we all face ,helping all of us seeking justice,grow bright and getting better all the time,whether we are swimming under the radar, or roaring in thier face,while making 500 ft waves that'll drown the status quo in it's own crap!

Hurricane Earl will be coming close to me, but weird me I love storms. Sometimes when storms come,they might be scary,for awhile, but when you walk into it unafraid you go to the eye,silently,watching as they clean the sky ,clear the air, change the landscape,and water the parched ground with cool rain catching the waves of the future that many cannot see yet..dormant .. Until the world can be shook back into truth, it awakes in fertile minds in disastrous looking times..Bobbie You RAWWWKK!!!

[niyad]

2. k and r--thank you for this valuable information

[ThomCat]

5. How did I KNOW that if you got onto this topic

you would be a wealth of information? :hug:

:loveya:

[glitch]

6. This really should be at the top of the greatest. K & R nt

[bobbolink]

10. Agreed! How can we make it so? It is already forgotten. HELP!!

[TheKentuckian]

8. Thank you for giving certain cynics something to chew on and ammo to advocates

[dajoki]

11. K&R

Thanks for all the great information.

[bobbolink]

12. Hey, DUers, we need to put this great info to work for us!

:kick: