LOLOLOL. LOLOLOLOL. So. Many. Words.

(Do your reports read this poorly? Yikes!)

Simply put: if you are actually able-bodied but are going to sponge off taxpayers, prepare yourself to be prosecuted if you are lying about your “disability.”

The law firm and P.I. group that I contract with for my covert video portion of the case bills about $14,000 for a full investigation. The average fraudulent disability claim runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes over a million dollars, over a claimant’s lifetime. My work, and my colleagues’ work, saves taxpayers enormous amounts of money.

There are people with REAL disabilities, like my friends with cholangiocarcinoma and a TBI, who suffer because someone with “chronic pain” got a chiropractor to sign off on a sketchy disability claim. Fraudsters are absolutely abusing the system. I know several people here on this forum are committing fraud; hell, they brag openly about it.

I’m sorry that you are in the corner of people committing disability fraud. It’s a weird, twisted position to hold. Fortunately, there are networks of people determined to eradicate that type of theft.

I know you see fraud everywhere, except when it's your friends. I am in a high risk group for Covid, being 69. I will let them know that. Recently having bronchitis adds to that. I will not risk my health for $10 a day.

Oh, ColoKate...

You might be committing an equal or greater fraud. At least you acknowledged that you have a vested interest in continuing to work in ways that might harm the lives of legitimately disabled persons. You seem to have no awareness that you have cast aspersions and generalized persons who should be regarded as their own unique selves. You seem to be unaware of what disabled life looks and acts like and of how potentially endless and/or prurient investigations impact on lives.

Surely this cannot be legitimate work!

How are you helping disabled persons when you simultaneously fail to know that there might not be cause to investigate? You get that money, disabled persons do not get that money, and there seems to be no shelter, for vulnerable and legitimately disabled persons, from spurious claims against their legitimate disability. These people remain at the mercy of people like you who collect money that could be disbursed to disabled persons.

Who is going to help the insurers and the government to see the need for change? Specifically, who will rewrite the policies and laws so as to protect the vulnerable and disabled amid searches for fraudulent claims? This glaring deficiency needs to be corrected. The situation is so dire that I walked away from an established but faulty system. How many others must be tortured before systemic relief is added?

We were talking about jury duty. Who, even for low pay, would like to be the jury for a well-prepared case against the currently permitted potentially endless challenges to disability which disrupt lives and cause other forms of harm, and which only the victims of these seemingly endless allegations and investigations can describe? I would.

I am 70. I have been boosted. I have risk factors for COVID as well. None of them qualify in my jurisdiction as a reason to be excused. Until today, NJ still had some indoor mask rules. There have held in-person court sessions for a year. I will wear a genuine N95 mask if I am called. A jury box is far less dangerous vis-a-vis COVID than a jail cell if they issue a bench warrant for non-appearance.

@johnb974 wrote:

I know you see fraud everywhere, except when it's your friends. I am in a high-risk group for Covid, being 69. I will let them know that. Recently having bronchitis adds to that. I will not risk my health for $10 a day.

Shop,

I’ve been doing this work for a decade now. Every single one of the fraudsters has pled guilty. Every. Single. One. These are open and shut cases.

These are people who fake “chronic back pain” and “can’t possibly work,” yet they are bouncing around on ATVs, deadlifting 160 pounds, bending over and loading dozens of crates of bottled water at Costco. All on my covert video. PV-500s are marvelous for much more than new home and apartment shops, that’s for sure!

Easy solution: Give every citizen a $1,000 per month basic income, disabled or not., and stop paying for all the paperwork and investigations.

And, make reparations to the disabled who have suffered unnecessary investigations which ravage their time, energy, and enjoyment of life. They may continue to receive benefits, but they should be paid punitive damages for rotten treatment. Where are the increased payments to the disabled people?

@Shop-et-al wrote:

And, make reparations to the disabled who have suffered unnecessary investigations which ravage their time, energy, and enjoyment of life. They may continue to receive benefits, but they should be paid punitive damages for rotten treatment. Where are the increased payments to the disabled people?

Reparations for being investigated for disability fraud? Paid at prevailing wage for jury duty?

LOLOL. What complete and utter entitlement.

I am one of the miscreants you list.

When I first went on disability, I was not allowed to work. Not an hour, not a day, not a week.

This was SS disability, not private or workmen's comp.

After several years on disability, someone convinced SS that allowing people to work while disabled was a win-win -- improved mental health was a huge benefit. What upstanding citizen with middle class values really wants to feel like a useless parasite? Not me, that's for sure.

There were strict rules governing income you could earn, and how many quarters you could earn it before losing benefits. I never, ever, not once, broke, bent, or even skirted close to those rules. The small amount I was allowed to earn made the difference between making ends meet and not. I worked pizza delivery, as a dishwasher, as a cashier. Employers DID make the "reasonable accommodations" required by ADA (for instance, allowing me to pay out of pocket to have another employee do the sweeping and mopping that I was physically incapable of doing). Each employer was informed of my disability and of the constraints on income limits that meant I could only work about 12 hours a week.

When I reached retirement age, my SSDI automatically changed to retirement income, and I am under the same reporting rules for income tax and self employment tax as any other citizen. If my income meets certain criteria, I pay taxes on my SS, just as anyone else would.

Not all people working while on disability are committing fraud.

However, a significant portion ARE, and I for one applaud your work.

@ColoKate63 wrote:

@Shop-et-al wrote:

@ColoKate63: I appreciate your concerns regarding fraud.

Without access to those private/off-limits facts, and with this lesson in how ability and disability might literally and figuratively look different for each person, how can you determine who is in violation or perpetrating a fraud? And, how can you be certain that your 'aha!' moments will not cause any difficulty or any hardship for persons who are not in violation or perpetrating fraud?

I’m neither a judge nor a jury member. I merely work as a 1099 contractor for a law firm which is charged with collecting tips on disability fraud and gathering evidence for court proceedings to prosecute the fraudulent claims. I perform covert video surveillance on people who claim to be 100% disabled and unable to work at all. I get a detailed file on each person with their social media photos, their sports teams, gym memberships, vehicle ownership, et cetera. I work in conjunction with a P.I. firm to collect evidence on them for prosecution. It’s great, good work.

Disability fraud is estimated to cost each American taxpayer $1,000.00. I genuinely enjoy catching these grifters riding ATVs, doing deadlifts at Gold’s Gym, hanging Christmas lights from roofs. I get my video, I’m paid within five working days, and I walk away from the case and go to the next one. I have one scheduled for tomorrow where the claimant rides horses every Tuesday afternoon. Should be a good one.

I’d encourage you to search this forum for the words “disabled” and/or “disability,” There are multiple posters here who are on full disability, but posting about lifting heavy merchandising boxes, driving huge routes for gas station audits, doing parking lot audits. I hope each of them gets turned in and prosecuted.

Back on topic. Many states exempt you from Jury duty based on age. Here in California you no longer have to serve once you reach 70.

@kenasch wrote:

Back on topic. Many states exempt you from Jury duty based on age. Here in California you no longer have to serve once you reach 70.

I'm 69 Will be 70 in 7 months. I just missed it.

It is 75 in NJ.

@kenasch wrote:

Back on topic. Many states exempt you from Jury duty based on age. Here in California you no longer have to serve once you reach 70.

@ColoKate63 wrote:

This person is committing disability fraud. There are people like me who have no problem at all filming them at their work and turning them in. I could easily go through this forum and pick out dozens of posts just like this. But I’m not getting paid $75/hour to perform surveillance on them, so they’re getting a break from me.

It's not a good idea to accuse anyone of a crime like fraud in an open forum like this. It's slander material if the person(s) who posted about their disability status choose(s) to pursue a case.

I have family members (now in their 50s and 60s) who have been on disability for years.

Not all disabilities are visible to untrained observers. Some are psychological/mental. Carrying "heavy" boxes or riding an ATV or a Porsche may be very doable for someone with severe PTSD--but their flashbacks (etc.) may not allow them to co-exist in a typical workplace.

And not every pain is treatable with an aspirin.

Did you know that horseback riding programs were specifically developed as therapy to help people with disabilities develop self-confidence? Someone who goes horseback riding every week is simply keeping their appointment.

Others have physical disabilities, that don't display in the stereotypical manner. Many diseases go through stages including those where a casual observer (like yourself) might not realize the person is even ill, let alone disabled. The list of these is long--multiple sclerosis, lupus, kidney failure, heart failure, etc. Not everyone who is disabled is sitting at home in a wheelchair--most are not. They try to live their lives as best as they can.

As Cease mentioned, experts convinced Social Security decades ago of the importance of work to the healing process for many disabled people. In the long run, this "work," which you characterize as fraud, probably lessened overall costs to the taxpayers than if they were not allowed to work at all.

I did some research. Social Security Admin, which supposedly has the most strict disability requirements of the government agencies, actually encourages people on disability to work:
[www.ssa.gov]

Susan L. - all those words, all that Internet Lawyering… and you completely missed the point that the law firm (with ACTUAL lawyers) is working on cases where the claimants are supposedly “100 disabled” due to “spinal injuries” and/or “back pain.”

But, DO go on. And on. And on.

In my area, you register online when you get your jury summons. They send you an email confirmation. You can request an exemption if you are 70 or over or have small children to care for and a couple other reasons, I think. It's a shame there isn't an exemption for being self employed but there isn't here. County and city pay $10. State pays the $10 plus mileage reimbursement. Federal court pays $50 a day plus reimbursement for parking. Most major employers allow you to go to jury duty and you are paid, so the $10 is lunch money. That's not the case if you are self employed. Since my employer pays me, I wouldn't mind serving, except it's inconvenient to move meetings and plan around the date. After the court date is set, they email a reminder about when and where to show up. I've been summoned about 10 times in 20 years - counting city, county, state and federal court system. I've gotten more summons than anyone I know. Don't know why. All the summons were cancelled except one because they were either settled out of court or plea deal. I have only had to show up once. It was a civil case involving a car accident and lasted a few hours. They call a lot more people than the 12 they need. Everybody just sits there and the lawyers and judge ask questions and pick 12. Then they send everybody else home after like an hour. I did get picked the time I showed up and it lasted until about 2:30 with a 1-1/2 hour break for lunch.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2022 03:09PM by AustinMom.

@ColoKate63 wrote:

Susan L. - all those words, all that Internet Lawyering… and you completely missed the point that the law firm (with ACTUAL lawyers) is working on cases where the claimants are supposedly “100 disabled” due to “spinal injuries” and/or “back pain.”

But, DO go on. And on. And on.

Thank you, I'll go on.

There are fraudsters in every aspect of life; the trick is figuring out who they are. It is a reasonable thing for an organization paying claims to hire professionals to investigate questionable cases. But to leap from that into declaring all disabled people who work as frauds, and threaten some of them on a public forum, is not reasonable.

To the OP: Some disabled people can receive an exemption from jury duty in some states for as long as their disability lasts.

I am still trying desperately to understand why anyone would actually try to get out of jury duty.

There are so many places in the world where people would die to earn this right and privilege.

And yes, I have been called and gladly served.

Except once. California sent me a notice for jury duty 10 years after I moved to Nebraska. I didn't know when you move you should take your name off the voter rolls. Guess I was double-registered all those years!

There are people who defraud every type of available income-without-work program in this country.

However, at least in my state, it's almost impossible to get a judgement in favor of an applicant for disability. I have a family member who has a disability and couldn't work for awhile. We didn't know if this would be permanent or not. We jumped through the hoops required, including examination by a state-employed doctor who saw him exactly once, and also consulted with an attorney who specializes in disability cases. He said, and I quote: "You have to be just about comatose here in Pennsylvania to get disability benefits." Fortunately, my family member was switched to some different treatments and can now work. But his disability will forever inhibit is ability to work at a demanding, higher-paying job.

A woman I know has become totally disabled and has been told by doctors that she can't work. However, her disability case was denied. She's now appealing it.

So, yeah, there are people who abuse the system, but it's very hard, at least in my state, to get benefits.

And some people have disabilities that aren't physical. That person bending down to check shelves or who is loading a cart or something may very well have a qualifying disability that you can't see. Don't judge based on appearances only. If people can work part-time and collect partial disability, is that a problem for you?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2022 03:51AM by BirdyC.

I was reading today about the jury selection in a case in MI. Jurors were excused for saying they thought the defendant was guilty or pausing when they were asked if they could put aside their conclusions or prejudices about the case. Before seating a jury, the judge gives a summary of the case of what kind of crime, age of the victim, etc. Attorneys watch the prospective jurors reactions to the summary especially when its a particularly heinous crime.

You are not the first, but I wish you were the absolute last, to jeer at what you know nothing about and-- possibly-- might be unable to learn more about over time. Is this an actual inability? If so, is it also an actual disability? I am not in the business of determining who is disabled and how they are so. I am only living the life of a person who is uniquely positioned to see the good and the bad of the disability system from the inside out from when I was in the system and from the outside in, now that I have abandoned the benefits because the disadvantages far outweighed the benefits. The greatest disadvantage was a lack of protections against an onslaught of fraudulent reports of fraudulent receipt of benefits. More specifically, it was a never-ending hell to be investigated once, immediately thereafter, a third time... with no legalized end in sight...

Every time someone, anyone, anyone at all, submits their opinion that a person whom they believe to be on benefits is there fraudulently, an investigation ensues. Regardless of the reliability or intention of the reporter, an investigation ensues. There is no end to the number of reports or investigations. There is no end to the impact of the investigations in a life that includes disability.

Let's do the math. Each report causes an investigation which requires the disabled person to spend time and sometimes money unnecessarily because this involves medical investigations which are not otherwise necessary.
The hassles of the investigations increase exponentially along with the mandatory unnecessary tasks while the ability to enjoy life and complete the essentials diminish exponentially. And, legitimately disabled persons have absolutely no recourse except to endure this mistreatment, which the law permits if only by failing to safeguard against it.

Based upon my experience I have realized that the excessive, fraudulent, malicious, and other nuisance reports should be civil torts for which disabled persons can sue for damages including demonstrated unnecessary expenses, loss of enjoyment of life, and unfettered punitive damages.

Some clever soul could probably pen a law against all the jeering and generalizing, such as you have performed here. OTOH, could those fall within the intention of laws against hate crimes? Aren't people sent to prison when convicted of hate crimes? (Did you get that? I actually wound all the way around and back to jury duty.)

@ColoKate63 wrote:

@Shop-et-al wrote:

And, make reparations to the disabled who have suffered unnecessary investigations which ravage their time, energy, and enjoyment of life. They may continue to receive benefits, but they should be paid punitive damages for rotten treatment. Where are the increased payments to the disabled people?

Reparations for being investigated for disability fraud? Paid at prevailing wage for jury duty?

LOLOL. What complete and utter entitlement.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2022 01:30AM by Shop-et-al.

LOL. Having an open mindset is positive. I had a boss at a job I held while attending college. She was so elated at being summoned. Talked about it excitedly at work for days to anyone who would listen. She was dreaming about being the foreman (person). She never got to report.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I am still trying desperately to understand why anyone would actually try to get out of jury duty.

There are so many places in the world where people would die to earn this right and privilege.

And yes, I have been called and gladly served.

Except once. California sent me a notice for jury duty 10 years after I moved to Nebraska. I didn't know when you move you should take your name off the voter rolls. Guess I was double-registered all those years!

My brother gave me an idea. I can delay jury duty for 90 days. He said to pick a holiday week, where there is less of a chance of being picked.

@ColoKate63, for cryin' out loud. To listen to you, the *majority* of people on disability are fraudsters! And if *you* can't see their disability, it means they're gaming the system. And you just *know* that there are multiple people on this forum who are fraudulently on disability? How could you know that? Do you know them personally? Do you know what their specific disabilities are? Just because someone can lift a heavy package does not mean they're not disabled.

Maybe your state is stuck in the old-fashioned cliche of people claiming whiplash in car injuries, but it's very difficult these days in many states to get disability payments.

This has to be one of the most closed-minded, mean-spirited, and downright inaccurate things I've ever read on this forum. Mods, you can delete my post if you like. But I find the disparaging of people on this forum, and of the disabled in general, especially those whose disabilities aren't visible, pretty reprehensible.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2022 11:01PM by BirdyC.

@BirdyC wrote:

@ColoKate63, for cryin' out loud. To listen to you, the *majority* of people on disability are fraudsters! And if *you* can't see their disability, it means they're gaming the system. And you just *know* that there are multiple people on this forum who are fraudulently on disability? How could you know that? Do you know them personally? Do you know what their specific disabilities are? Just because someone can lift a heavy package does not mean they're not disabled.

Maybe you're state is stuck in the old-fashioned cliche of people claiming whiplash in car injuries, but it's very difficult these days in many states to get disability payments.

This has to be one of the most closed-minded, mean-spirited, and downright inaccurate things I've ever read on this forum. Mods, you can delete my post if you like. But I find the disparaging of people on this forum, and of the disabled in general, especially those whose disabilities aren't visible, pretty reprehensible.

Nice personal attack. It demonstrates that you don’t have a real argument.

Pre-pandemic, I attended mystery shopping conferences and special training for large projects where a group of core participants would be flown out to a hotel and meet. I literally have listened to mystery shoppers who are 100% “disabled” talk about evading the conditions of their disability payments by keeping their earnings at $599 or under for each company they work for. It’s here on the forum, where dozens of posts begin with “I’m disabled…”

Approximately $3.5 billion of taxpayer money - money that could be used to help TRULY disabled people - goes to fraudulent payments. That’s nearly $1K per working adult in the USA. People who can and should be working, but would rather leech off the government, cost us dearly.

In some areas of Appalachia and the Deep South, up to 25% of 40-60 year old adults are collecting disability payments. There are multiple counties in Alabama, for example, where almost a third of working-age adults are on disability. That’s a perversion of a system that was meant to care for people who truly are unable to work.

In areas like these, it’s not at all difficult to get onto disability. The local doctors (often chiropractors) know how to write up “chronic pain” recommendations. There are “disability consultants” who will guide a person through the process, including referring to friendly chiropractic practices, for a cut of the eventual disability payment check. It’s pretty disgusting once you start digging into the scam.

Re: mystery shoppers- I firmly believe that, if you can plan a multi-stop shopping route and execute it, you can hold a regular job. If you can do a merchandising route, or gas stations, you can work as a cashier or in retail - and stop collecting those disability checks. If you are disabled due to physical rather than mental reasons, you should be able to sit on a jury and do your civic duty.

My covert video work for the law firm I contract with exposes people who claim to be fully “disabled” and unable to work, but they are carrying out activities of daily life (ADL) in a manner that demonstrates that they have capacity to hold full time employment. We have a handful of chiropractic clinics and doctors who write disability benefit statements for hundreds of patients for “back pain.” They get reported to the government (usually by ex-spouses or family) for fraud, handed to the law firm I contract with, and we take it from there.

I have zero problems with being part of a team investigating and exposing these fraudulent claims. I wish that there were more of us. Over a lifetime, a single fake disability claim can cost taxpayers from $150,000 to over $1 million. Spending $14,000 (average) to document the fraud through the combined work of attorneys, P.I.s, and covert video is an intelligent and efficient way to curb fraud.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2022 04:07PM by ColoKate63.

Ah. This is your personal belief. A belief! But it is not my real life experience. A real life set of experiences! Using your provided example of a merchandising route and working as a cashier or in retail, I can affirm for you-- based upon actual experience-- that the work load, scheduling freedoms, and other details are so dissimilar that you are comparing apples and oranges. The capacity for work is unique and the work schedules are not the same. I no longer perform work that I used to perform. I perform other work in other ways and at other times. After all my years as a part-time IC, I have not been able to advance to big-earner or large volume performer status. I need to take weeks off from work in order to recapture my energy after performing work that now exhausts me. Would you say, with the full strength of your firm belief, that needing weeks off between work exertions is the same as or the equivalent of a typical and typically scheduled job as a cashier or in retail? And when you see people doing whatever they do, how can you be certain that behind the veneer of high performance is not an exhausted soul who cannot wait to get home, put away only the perishable groceries, and plop on the couch until they feel better and can tackle the rest of the groceries, the procurement of which might have exhausted them and been so painful they could cry?

You have threatened to report people whom you believe to be disabled and simultaneously fraudulently collecting benefits.

I suggest an alternative.

You might have been one of the ill-informed individuals who reported me. To you or whoever has chosen to report me so many times that my already diminished life was reduced to no more than answering fraudulent complaints, I cordially invite you to live a year in my world. During this time, you will experience what I experience. At the end of this time, you probably will not be able to move enough to handle whatever device you might choose to file yet another fraudulent complaint regarding me. You might feel like filing for your own disability claims. (But be careful! Some ill-informed individuals might see you doing something that violates their firm belief about what you "should" be doing and file innumerable fraudulent complaints about you.)

@ColoKate63 wrote:

I firmly believe that, if you can plan a multi-stop shopping route and execute it, you can hold a regular job. If you can do a merchandising route, or gas stations, you can work as a cashier or in retail - and stop collecting those disability checks. If you are disabled due to physical rather than mental reasons, you should be able to sit on a jury and do your civic duty.

My covert video work for the law firm I contract with exposes people who claim to be fully “disabled” and unable to work, but they are carrying out activities of daily life (ADL) in a manner that demonstrates that they have capacity to hold full time employment.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2022 04:19PM by Shop-et-al.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

Ah. This is your personal belief. A belief! But it is not my real life experience. A real life set of experiences! Using your provided example of a merchandising route and working as a cashier or in retail, I can affirm for you-- based upon actual experience-- that the work load, scheduling freedoms, and other details are so dissimilar that you are comparing apples and oranges. The capacity for work is unique and the work schedules are not the same. I no longer perform work that I used to perform. I perform other work in other ways and at other times. After all my years as a part-time IC, I have not been able to advance to big-earner or large volume performer status. I need to take weeks off from work in order to recapture my energy after performing work that now exhausts me. Would you say, with the full strength of your firm belief, that needing weeks off between work exertions is the same as or the equivalent of a typical and typically scheduled job as a cashier or in retail? And when you see people doing whatever they do, how can you be certain that behind the veneer of high performance is not an exhausted soul who cannot wait to get home, put away only the perishable groceries, and plop on the couch until they feel better and can tackle the rest of the groceries, the procurement of which might have exhausted them and been so painful they could cry?

You have threatened to report people whom you believe to be disabled and simultaneously fraudulently collecting benefits.

I suggest an alternative.

You might have been one of the ill-informed individuals who reported me. To you or whoever has chosen to report me so many times that my already diminished life was reduced to no more than answering fraudulent complaints, I cordially invite you to live a year in my world. During this time, you will experience what I experience. At the end of this time, you probably will not be able to move enough to handle whatever device you might choose to file yet another fraudulent complaint regarding me. You might feel like filing for your own disability claims. (But be careful! Some ill-informed individuals might see you doing something that violates their firm belief about what you "should" be doing and file innumerable fraudulent complaints about you.)

@ColoKate63 wrote:

I firmly believe that, if you can plan a multi-stop shopping route and execute it, you can hold a regular job. If you can do a merchandising route, or gas stations, you can work as a cashier or in retail - and stop collecting those disability checks. If you are disabled due to physical rather than mental reasons, you should be able to sit on a jury and do your civic duty.

My covert video work for the law firm I contract with exposes people who claim to be fully “disabled” and unable to work, but they are carrying out activities of daily life (ADL) in a manner that demonstrates that they have capacity to hold full time employment.

Got it. You want “scheduling freedoms” and “weeks off between work exertions.” LOLOL.

Good thing that the millions of decent, hard working Americans who paid taxes for your disability checks didn’t have such an aversion to work.

Think of all those nurses, RTs, physicians and other hospital staffers who diligently worked through their exhausting shifts this pandemic- and gotten up, showered and dressed, and gone back to work. Paramedics who desperately worked around the clock. Teachers and substitute teachers who went into classrooms as their students contracted Covid and passed it around.

Aren’t you a tiny bit embarrassed? Or are you completely shameless?

And - no, I have actually never turned in a single person for disability fraud. I have expressed my frustration at hearing and reading about mystery shoppers committing fraud, but I’ve never filed a complaint. It’s pretty ridiculous to accuse me of “threatening to report” people on an anonymous forum.

I know no one on disability for a fraudulent reason. My friends and family circle is composed of hard-working, focused and responsible adults. When times get tough, they “embrace the suck” and get up and go to work the next day, and the next. And they would fulfill their civic responsibilities and go sit on a jury, not try to weasel out.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2022 05:00PM by ColoKate63.

@ColoKate63 wrote:

Nice personal attack. It demonstrates that you don’t have a real argument. [/quote=ColoKate63]

Not nearly as much of an attack as yours on those you assume to be defrauding the system. And I have no clue what you mean about not having an argument. I've had experience in trying to navigate "the system" on behalf of a disabled person, so I have real-life exposure to this issue.

I have already said that I understand that some people defraud the system. But millions more don't, and I know and have known people who are truly disabled and are struggling to be approved for benefits.

Your comments strongly suggest that you don't understand disabilities that aren't visible to people. Having had personal experience with people (more than one) who are in that category, I find this extremely troubling and prejudicial.

Your personal experience (and I agree, shoppers who game and work around the system is disgusting) doesn't reflect all of reality. It seems you've let that and other reports color your perception to a degree beyond being disheartened and disgusted. You sound incredibly angry toward disabled people whose disability isn't visible to YOU and whom you don't happen to believe are disabled.

So, there are those who defraud the system. They need to be dealt with. But I am tired of attitudes that intimate, "If I don't see you struggling physically, then you're not disabled and are a cheat." You alluded to mental disability; thank you, but you still seem to focus on physical activity being the standard for whether or not someone is truly disabled.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Colokate63:

I am wondering about this thread and this entire forum. Are you seeing this entire thread? I ask this because I now wonder about a technical difficulty or some other explanation for how you missed my posts about me and jury duty. I mentioned that I am eligible and willing to serve on jury duty and that I have done so in the past. My service happened after my disability began. You seem not to have seen that. Perhaps tptb can identify some technical issue that is interfering with the full expression of all the posts in the thread.

While it is true that work exhausts me because of my disabling conditions, it is also true that I am and HSP. As such need down times more often than some other people. The HSP is not the same as a disability. Other HSPs schedule their worlds around this, have no disability, and work and live freely. I also have mentioned this in a few threads. I have always been this, but I have not always been disabled. It just enables me to explain my situation with more terms than the disability glossary contains. So when you call me shameless, you are just what you accused BirdyC of, eh? You are without an actual argument. Your own words demonstrate this.

Speaking of more words: Perhaps there is more available information about people than we can fit into this thread. The most important point to remember is that you have threatened to report people and have been told why others' fraudulent reports have been so deleterious to my life that I left the disability system altogether.

Threatening people is not going to improve their conditions or their lives. It is not going to direct additional disbursements to disabled persons. Reporting them fraudulently is not going to help disabled persons. However, punishment for fraudulent reports of fraudulent claims might go far in reducing ignorant, vicious, spiteful, and/or other malicious assaults on disabled persons who are living disabled lives. These reports are accomplished through words, among other means. Why not use the power of all these words to make live better and safer for disabled persons?

What if you now turned your attention to preventing fraudulent reports of fraudulent claims? You might be able to prevent further erosion of lives that already are constrained by disabilities. I am Exhibit A in this, I know of what I speak, and I recognize that you have a great deal of energy, which if redirected, could do a different sort of good for disabled persons. What do you think, ColoKate63?

@Shop-et-al and @BirdyC - I need to leave and go to W-O-R-K, so this is my last post for today. (I don’t have time to hover on a forum about working; I get out and do it. Your multiple thousands of posts tell a different story.)

Today, there are millions of people getting out, grabbing coffee, and going to work with conditions that would qualify for a disability. People who have major depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, et cetera. For example, I come from a military family, and some members have PTSD after serving. Guess what? No claims for disability from them; they suck it up, get therapy, and still put in an eight hour day. Like I wrote in an earlier post, they are responsible adults.

By the time we are 40 or 50, we have all had enough life experience to have (1) banged ourselves up a bit physically and (2) suffered some trauma. Life has suffering, it’s inevitable. Some people overreact to the suffering and adopt a victim mentality. And in the USA, there are multiple doctors, chiropractors, and disability consultants who will help them secure a check for that. I think it’s pretty shameful when some “need weeks in between work” and demand a government check for that - and others take a deep breath, pull themselves together, and go to their job.

This whole “invisible disability” concept is difficult for me personally because (1) we’ve all had terrible experiences by the time we’re middle aged, (2) millions of people have the same conditions and do not ask for government support, (3) it’s relatively easy to claim, especially if you enlist the services of a “disability consultant” or a specialized attorney. The large numbers of people on disability demonstrate how easy it is, if you can “work the system.”

In my line of covert video work, everyone I see is on disability for either “chronic pain” or “back pain,” both of which are easy to fake. I only covertly video that type of fraudulent behavior.

And, now, I’m off to work. I’m 58, and am putting in about 60 hours this week, no whining. My family is Eastern European (Polish/Ukrainian) so maybe that has something to do with that. Grit is prized and honored; a victim mentality is absolutely not.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2022 06:08PM by ColoKate63.

ColoKate63:

You probably will not see this until after you have finished today's portion of your 60 or so hours of work for this week. This is okay. It is timeless.

Speaking of work: how do you classify work that disabled persons perform at home? For example, if they prepare and clean up after a meal, they perform work. If they put their own undies in the laundry basket instead of making someone else do that, they perform work. Different people perform different work. It all adds up numerically and energetically.

In addition to whatever work disabled persons perform at home, how much work do you-- with all the power of your belief system-- expect them to perform otherwise? In other words, how much is enough, according to ColoKate63, the great who is eager to report any violators?

More important: How much is enough according to the laws of the land and the policies of the disability system which disburses funds to disabled persons?

Most important: Whose job is it to vet all the reports so that no disabled persons must waste valuable time and energy (and sometimes money!) by responding to nuisance reports?

P.S. Still wondering about a glitch. ColoKate63 just reamed me about my disability checks. I had previously stated that I no longer participate in the system. Can someone please find out if/when/how information is not being processed? It would be terrible for everyone here if the issue extends to other threads, too.

P.P.S. Grit is good. If I were a hardwood floor, you could be useful.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2022 11:21PM by Shop-et-al.