Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayandnay
*edit* this is about people who have worked all their lives and because of a disability cannot work, need help from a system they helped fund for the majority of their lives. It amazes me how honest people are lumped in with crooks, and how no one came to them when they were working hard and say, you need to take it easy, here's a program that will pay you to stay home, have 5 kids out of wedlock, work the system, and just relax, you don't need to start your 40th year on the job.
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To qualify for SSDI, you don't have to have worked all your life - 10 years is usually enough if you have five years in the last ten. To qualify for SSI, you don't have to have worked at all.
In order to sort the crooks from the honest people, there has to be someone to judge, there has to be a system. It cannot be determined only by individual opinion of the applicant. Most people who apply for disability benefits believe that they are disabled enough to qualify. A few people file and think they can scam the government, but that is not the majority. However, if you could compare your life to all other applicants, you would find that some are sicker or more limited than you and others are less sick and less limited to you. There has to be a line drawn. And the interpretation of the law that defines that line has to be done by a person trained to do so, an ALJ or a DDS analyst.
People can become severely disabled at any age, more likely as they get older, but it can happen anytime - accident, illness, injury.