I hope you read that title with the sarcasm infused in it.

I have so many well-meaning friends/family that say things like "Why don't you just go on disability?" If they weren't such wide-eyed innocents, I'd surely smack 'em.

They think you just wake up some morning deciding you don't feel like working any more, go to the "Disability Office", sign up (no doctor's note necessary), pick up your first check and a note for your boss.

You take the note to your employer, clean out your desk, and go happily on your way. All before 9:00 a.m. Easy-peasy. Golly, why didn't I think of that?

LOL, so true B2. When others still asked me that, I would answer them with my own question: "Since you're struggling to pay the orthodontist and make the boat payment, why don't you just go get a new job that pays $500,000 a year?"

Making the decision is gruelling . . . but once you've made it (and depending on your coverage, etc.), it is something many of us have had wade through as some point.

What is stopping you?

Do you have STD and LTD, or would you be dependant on SSDI (or whatever it's called there ... ?).

Cherie

Actually, Cherie, I only have 14 months (and 14 days) left before I can retire with 30 years of service, so I am determined to get there if I possibly can.

I hope it didn't sound as if I was making light of having to go on disability. Just that so many people think that you can simply keep working until you "decide" to collect, then it's just as easy as 1-2-3.

I've heard so many horror stories of what folks have had to go through to get approved--doctors who won't cooperate, paperwork and red tape, waiting through months of no or little income, feeling frustrated and anxious, and then not always getting approved despite OBVIOUS disability.

I'm glad it's there in case I DO need to apply, but...I hope I don't.

if i didnt get the sardonic tone from title i did get it from your post lol that was great, thanks

I don't even have enough hours to collect SSDI because I was a stay at home mom for most of my life. I could get SSI I guess if I left school and didn't get an assistantship. I need to get some work hours under my belt for if/when I might need SSDI in the future.. ggrr...

Monique

Have ya ever gotten a response?

Blessings, praying for you the strength to make it to retirement. 30 years! What an accomplishment.

What they don't know is that private disabiltiy that comes from your employer is taxed. You do not get SSDI in addition to that. The private policy gets reimbursed when you qualify for SSDI.

It is not a cakewalk by any means to live on disability period!!

Also my employer's policy only covers one year of health insurance. If you can't come back to work, you have no insurance!!!

I literally dragged myself to work before the deadline and was declared partially disabled. I needed a doctors note to say I could go back to work with the following restrcitions, and the PT wrote a note that I had to use the elevator. This was not for MS, but a severe accident I had b/f dx of MS.

I am with you. I am trying to make it to full retirement, one way or another.

Just EXACTLY what I'm talkin' about, Starfish!

Some days I drag my sorry self home from work in tears, thinking "I just can't DO this any more!" It really is getting hard. But when I think about going through "the process", that looks really hard, too.

I THINK I can, I THINK I can...chug chug chug...

SSDI isn't easy to get, and really, they shouldn't base it on "previous earned income" after all, when your sick your sick, and alot of people can't work much to begin with. I had to leave a very high paying job due to my ms, and didn't know what it was at the time. Then they make you jump through hoops and get medical testing you can't even afford to prove you are disabled. The whole system over here is backwards. By the time you get benefits, you are in debt, and what they give you isn't enough to live on.