I am also on SSD. I am a Registered Nurse (I keep my license active because I WORKED hard to earn it, and hope although the possibility is remote, to work again someday. 6 yrs ago, I walked into a patients room just in time to see her passing out as she attempted to walk to the bathroom after surgery without asking for help. I lunged forward and helped her to the floor safely and without harm…..to her. Me? Well that is a different story. I ruptured a disc in my lower back, and tore my rotator cuff in my right shoulder. Two surgeries later, I found out I have Degenerative Disc Disease and am now facing another disc repair, having my spine fused and to make matters worse, have some bone growth removed before I am permanently paralyzed. I am 43 years old and have children at home, the youngest is 7. It is harder than you can possibly imagine to not be able to play with my kids, work at a job that I was called to even as a young girl. I have always wanted to serve others. Now I am disabled. Collecting SSD that pays less than what I earned as a nurse in a week. My children help me when they can. Probably more than they as children should be expected to at their young ages, but they do it out of love and concern. We have learned to live on much less financially, but our home is full of love. The story worsens from here, but I won’t put you through any more of my “sob” story. Suffice it to say, that while I am not proud of having to depend on SSD, I did pay into it. I teach my children the value of earning money. My 11 yr old son sat in the doctor’s office last week with me and listened as my doctor explained why things are the way they are. My son said, “Don’t worry mom, someday I will take care of you.”. That broke my heart. He shouldn’t have to worry about caring for me. Not at this age. My job is to care for him, which I do the best I can. I didnt walk into that patients room with the intent of living off the system for the rest of my life. Each one of us is a moment away from tragedy or catastrophe. Sure there re those who shouldnt be able to collect from a system they haven’t earned, but the great majority of us are just like you….want to work, contribute, and be meaningful members of society. Circumstance changed that for me, just like it could for you tomorrow. I pray it does not. I am not stupid. Overhaul is necessary, and if/when I need to take a cut I will. I am 100% conservative. I will do what is asked of me if it helps our great nation. I just pray that each of you will quit blaming those like me who would give anything to be in your shoes and not our own.

This program was never meant to be a disability fund. It was meant to be supplemental retirement income for people that actually paid into the system. I’m so sick and tired of this I could scream. They just keep taking my money and giving it away. So much for the original promise that it would be only for it’s intended purpose and that it would be held in TRUST for the payees.

I know personally about 10 veterans that have scammed the VA into disability payments ($1050 per month) and once that is done they get social security disability.

NOTICE…

The very first to say that conservatives are evil are the very same that live off of the system and place blame or scare tatics all around in order to achieve control…

Hey guys what about all the alcoholics, druggies and ex-cons who get SSD just because of what they are. Took me three years and being homeless for 18 months to get benefits but these groups seem to be able to get benefits right away. I’m in a wheelchair and live in pain. I’d give anything to be making my 100 grand a year again. My opinion is if you are drinking druging 0r a felon no SSD all it does is let them keep up the bad behavior and these things are a life choice not a disability.

I’ve paid into the system for 34 years and my 15 yearold can’t collect because my wife and me work. She has cerebral palsy and can’t walk or talk. It really grinds my gears that all of her classmates parents get disability and other benefits from the goverment and don’t pay to the system. Because we do pay my child doesn’t collect. That is screwed up.

Ever notice that all these wonderful entitlements managed by the government are strained for loot, no oversight and full of thievesand the US government has no intention of clearing up the mess they created or providing a place where you tax money is used in a efficient way. Notice also that this administration is hell bent of growing government, spending more to get less, allowing theft to increase no matter how much can be done to put a stop to it.

Do you understand the debt is nover going to be paid down because this government is to big, too expensive and so inefficient it cannot police itself….the trick here is for We the People to regain the control by leashing our elected officials and getting a contol of the money supply, it can be done with term limits and removing the IRS, progressive taxes, decertifying government unions and using a nat’l sales tax or flat tax voted on by nat’l ballot every ten years.

Put the civil back into public service….

Let us pray that you never get so severally hurt that you can never work again, I fell – they figure between 11 to 15 feet and landed on my head on a concrete slab, 4 surgery’s later, I still cannot use my hands, arms and legs, I am a white male and have seen abuses in the system – mainly minority’s, you think it’s a cake walk !!, come sit in my wheel chair with me for the past 10 years, I WILL gladly trade places with you, you can have every thing I own, just trade places with me. It’s real easy to judge if you haven’t been severally injure.!!! but I do agree with you – that there is abuse that needs to be addressed, Like the SSI could bring you in every 5 years for an assessment – with several Drs assessments of you. and by the way how many of you making these statements are EMPLOYED

Since I have Muscular Dystrophy and my wife has Dementia, we are both in our 70′s but are very wary on asking for any kind of help …the more the Gov knows about us, we believe, the worse it will be when the hammer drops.
I say this as a warning to all the people who have frivolous claims of ill health being from obesity to the old ‘Chronic back pain’ also known as the ‘English disease’..When the hammer does fall, and people are being rounded up since they would be of no further use to mankind, please hide your ailments,,,can it happen ? you bet it can.
Socialist Government is a weird enterprise and to give an example,,,before my rant get’s any longer.
We emigrated here ( legally ) from Britain in 1974,,,we left behind our parents,,,my Mother died a while later and so Dad was living in our beautiful family home on his own, he made the mistake of asking for a bit of home-help with the chores etc…He was helped alright, the Government took his house and furniture and put him in a tiny apartment without his beloved garden ( but with a weekly visit from a carer) and the house was GIVEN to a family in need,,,he got Nada.
Could this happen here,? is my house safe ?,,,I think we shall all find out when THE HAMMER DROPS.

Insurance be it government, worker’s compensation, or otherwise is not good business with everyone form doctors, hospitals, lawyers, governments, department of labor judges, and insurance executives and employees and others all with their hand out to take a piece of your pie. The injured human being is not getting what he paid for and was insured for. It is a racket full of greedy leeches, some subjectively prejudiced in the legal system, taking everything they can get their hands on and working in compliance with each other to steal your insurance when you are injured, in pain, and have suffered a loss. Disgusting system with not much left in it for the injured and disabled who must fight the system while they are suffering for their small piece of insurance that is left and after everyone else involved gets something for your pain and suffering. Time to clean up the system and everyone involved.

@Stephanie I sympathize with you and I’m so sorry you had to go through that! I have a disease that causes my joints to deteriorate. I had a double hip replacement when I was only 27 and have had 3 more replacements and revisions since. When I tried to apply for SSI on my own, the Dr. Working for SS actually laughed at me! Once I got a lawyer, it was ok’d with no problem. That’s why I believe there is collusion between the lawyers (who get a large chunk of your settlement) and the SS judges.

The problem with SSI is the corruption between some of the big Disability Legal Reps and the judges that ok all of their claims. If the person applying doesn’t fit into a disability category, they’ll “work something out”, by finding any reason they can. A man told me he was encouraged to apply because he could not hold a job due to the fact he was unable to function in society since he had been institutionalized for a large part of his life. The institution was Prison! Unbelievable!

If Social Programs are to be cut, or indeed eliminated, then it should be done ‘Cold Turkey’…not in dribs and drabs…

The first priority would be to bring all the troops home from Foreign lands to be ready to assist the Police of ALL the Cities which would be awash in rioting..They could also round up ALL illegal aliens and take them back to the borders,,,Instead of Luxury flights to Mexico City, Military aircraft could be loaded to the extreme and used instead.
Queues would form at the Social Security offices and then and only then would a person be allowed to re-register for allowances ( this would include ALL, even the elderly of which I’m one )..Unrest would follow, as in recent riots in Britain..but a sharp shock would really cull the unworthy from the rolls.
All this may be extreme, but there could be variations on the idea,,,but it needs to be done either today, or tomorrow morning.

In 1997 I was working and fell and broke my back, though I didn’t know it at first, so I kept on working. That evening, in a lot of pain, I lost all feeling in both legs and control over my bowels and bladder. I was rushed to the hospital and emergency surgery, but too late, the damage was done. I spent the next 3 YEARS trying to get social security. Even in the condition I’m in, I really had to fight to get it. I get a whopping $700.00 a month. Hardly enough for rent in my neck of the woods. I worked since I was 12 yrs. old. I would give anything if I could be whole again and work. But I can’t! I also have a friend who was born with spina bifida. He can’t work either, because of frequent infections. He’s been on SSD and SSI almost since birth. He was 1978 poster child for the March of Dimes.
I get very angry too when I see “able bodied” people recieving these benifits, but what would you do to fix it? Would you “throw the baby out with the bathwater?”
I once read somewhere that you can tell how good a society is by the way it treats it’s weakest members. What does it say about us as a society when we stuff our aged into stinking nursing homes and we throw our sick and disabled in the streets? Heaven forbid that any of these things happen to the commenters here, but if something should happen, wouldn’t you be glad to know there was at least a little help?
Please don’t paint us all with the same brush!

We can safe a lot of money by deporting illegal aliens that are using our system. But until Obama is done using them for there votes we will see our system drain of funds that should be going to people who need them American citizens should be the only ones receiving them. We could free up more then 8 million jobs right now if they would enforce our immigration laws.

I think that if SS would stop mailing checks to the dead oblama voters in Chicago it would save a few dollars??? And what about all of those convicted murders that will be spending their remaining days behind bars that receive a check every month????

Otherwise we are facing yet another failed liberal nanny system policy.
And just to think… oblama wants another nanny system policy oblamacare…. OH boy cant wait to screw this one huh oblama?

It has taken a long time, but the fact that Social Security is a FRAUD is out and it can’t be a secret again. Most people finally know that Social Security was used, abused and manipulated by those who have NO interest in taking care of Americans (LBJ comes to mind).
It’s the same with food stamps, too. At the moment, I’m referring to Soc Sec, Soc Sec FRAUD and those who have a deep, vested interest in making sure that the system FAILS (useful idiot politicians who are anything BUT Americans).
WHY do we have to do Uncle Scum’s job for him? If someone gets disability benefits and doesn’t deserve them, put the SOB behind bars. Put politicians who mutated the system behind BARS. Either the bastards are responsible, or we work for them, people. What’s the verdict? Aren’t you TIRED of being treated like DIRT?

Looks like it is time to remove all those who never paid into it and all the immigrants whose sponsors are to see to their keep as a condition of immigration (send momma back to china, israel, france,spain & anywhere else they came from). Make the slackers in the hood get a job. stop all the SSI payments to those married people who get legal separations so the wife can collect.(I think there is one in my building doing this)
YA KNOW WHAT? IT IS WAAAYYY PAST TIME TO HAVE ANYONE WHO IS COLLECTING ANY FORM OF SS (food stamps, wic, etc.) GET RE-CERTIFIED AND VERIFY THEY ARE STILL ELIGABLE, and I don’t mean by their local SS office because there might be some cooperation in fraud going on between the bro’s & sis’s, or the, we be hispanic bunch who have the mindset to “lets do the man” …Know what I mean?

OK…here we go again…When you have the government dipping into the SS fund and not paying back and allowing ILLEGALS access to a program not meant for them….what are we to expect….people not paying into the SS system should NOT have the benefits. AGain, NO OUTCRY……WHEN DO WE LEGAL CITIZENS STAND UP? ENOUGH is ENOUGH already!

The SSA disability program is set up in such a way that people are rewarded for enrolling. Today if one works until they are 70, their SS checks will be smaller than if they receive SS disability checks now. It is backwards from what it should be. Also there are too many on disability for bogus ailments such as ADHD or back injuries. Some receive their checks and then work for cash on the side. What a ripoff for tax payers.

The SSA might be able to save a few bucks by having those on disability to be evaluated every 5 years. They should talke to the neighbors to find out what goes on with them. Some I know, who are on SSD, climb up on their roof, build porches or out buildings, chop down trees, etc. But they can’t “work.” Bless their hearts. For the love of this country, SSA, check them out!

We need to look into why they are on disability in the first place. I have seen over and over again that the “disability” in fact is a direct result of the lifestyle choice. If people are making choices that cause health issues then they need to be denied and told to make better choices.

i agree the ones that can work should be shut off the ss disableity.

I don’t think this should have been on SS in the first place. The only reason it was enacted was to use some of the accumulating money that was meant for retirements. I think all of this should be transfered to the Welfare system and those on Welfare who can work should be shut off.