Reblogged: The Growth of 'Disability' in America

[ThrutchBlog]

NPR provides an interesting look at those the government pronounces "disabled". I don't know much about the topic, so I found this quite informative (and not the typical slanted NPR social engineering masquerading as reporting). Here's an excerpt:

But disability has also become a de facto welfare program for people without a lot of education or job skills. But it wasn't supposed to serve this purpose; it's not a retraining program designed to get people back onto their feet. Once people go onto disability, they almost never go back to work. Fewer than 1 percent of those who were on the federal program for disabled workers at the beginning of 2011 have returned to the workforce since then, one economist told me.

People who leave the workforce and go on disability qualify for Medicare, the government health care program that also covers the elderly. They also get disability payments from the government of about $13,000 a year. This isn't great. But if your alternative is a minimum wage job that will pay you at most $15,000 a year, and probably does not include health insurance, disability may be a better option.

But going on disability means you will not work, you will not get a raise, you will not get whatever meaning people get from work. Going on disability means, assuming you rely only on those disability payments, you will be poor for the rest of your life. That's the deal. And it's a deal 14 million Americans have signed up for.

Link to Original

[softwareNerd]

Today, NPR did a related story about a private company helping get people qualified as disabled. They're not paid by individuals. Instead, they are hired by states and counties. They go through the state welfare rolls, identify people who might qualify for disability, and then help them apply to the SSA. This might involve interviewing them about potential health reasons why they cannot find a job. ("Can you think of any medical reasons that keep you from working: depression, sleep apnea, etc.). They help them find doctors, and help them present their case to the SSA. The individuals are motivated because disability pays more than state welfare payments. The company gets $2,300 for every case that they take off the state welfare rolls and place on the Federal SSA disability rolls. The guy from this company says he will save Missouri $80 million. Of course, that just means the Feds will pay out more than $80 million, not to speak of the long-term dependency that comes from going on disability.

[Eiuol]

"Going on disability means, assuming you rely only on those disability payments, you will be poor for the rest of your life. That's the deal. And it's a deal 14 million Americans have signed up for."

 

I don't think this follows. Sure being on disability means not having a job, and you'd only get pay while not having a job. But it doesn't mean being poor the rest of your life. I see it to be the equivalent as saying "accepting charity means, assuming you rely on those charity payments, you will be the poor for the rest of your life". I doubt any person is happy to remain unemployed, except a minority of people. I imagine many will use money in an effort to get a job that works with their disability. But it's certainly harder for a disabled person to get a job because there are fewer options. I'm not excusing the existence of government welfare-type programs, but the NPR article is problematic evidence. And the disability statistics make more sense currently than in 1961, and more severe problems, so it makes sense that not a lot of people would go off disability. I'm more curious what previous statistics of going off disability were.
 

 

[softwareNerd]

NPR did another follow-up today, this time about disability payments for children. One kid in school had some "learning disability" (he sounded pretty bright in the interview) so his mother gets $700. The point behind the payment is that the mom might have to work less, in order to deal with his disability. The mom does not work and admitted that she'd be in financial trouble if he gets significantly better and is no longer judged "learning disabled". This type of perverse incentive is all over government programs.

Another kid had turned 18, and he wanted to work, but his mom was advising him to stay on disability. (I suppose of a different kind -- probably SSA.) She was worried that once he started working, he might not be able to earn as much as he would get on a disability check. She said "Not right now", but that's how these things go.. it's never the right time, until its too late.

Another girl (27 years old) had been on disability for a while (she has intermittent depression). She managed to find a job, but lost that after a while. Then, she had a hard time getting disability again, since she had proved that she could work. It sounded like she got a reduced check. She said she was now scared to do anything that might endanger that payment.