This is important stuff. SS is a cherished part of the covenant between the american people and our govt and we know so little about it and how it really works.

Unless regulations have changed since I left SSA, a secondary diagnosis of substance abuse required an SSI recipient to have a representative payee. They weren’t allowed to manage their own SSI funds because of drug or alcohol involvement.

My apologies for adding another off-topic comment. Title XVI isn’t what Bert’s article is about. I just don’t want people drawing generalized conclusions about SSI recipients based on relatively infrequent instances of program abuse.

There was an article in the Sunday Houston Chronicle about a homeless 42 year old male prostitute and long term drug user. He hoped to stay clean for 6 months because he could then collect SSI and by extension, other federal benefits. I think the longest he ever stayed clean was 2 weeks.

Needles to say, the wealthy 90′s are gone and will never come back. We’re facing huge problems with oil and valuable minerals such as lead and copper running out. We may be heading to a real catastrophe. I’m all for helping seniors, the handicapped and the sick but the rest need to take some responsibility of their own actions and stop expecting handouts.

Things that Reagan did was to cut benefits to children after high school even if they went to college. All benefits stop at age 18. Keeping these kids in school would be actually more helpful in the long run. Getting a college education means more earning power with increased tax revenue for the feds. In my opinion it was money well spent.

My brother, who has MS, was continuously denied benefits or had benefits terminated under a Reagan administration. This required lawyers of course who made money. The criteria for “gainful employment” was lifting less than 10 pounds and working less than 20 hours a week. It was the “ketchup is a vegetable” thinking.

But I do not understand your contention that AARP is an insurance company. While we received several solicitations for Medicare supplemental insurance from companies including some approved by AARP, each was careful to state that they were not a part of AARP. Can you document this claim?

That is not to say the person with terminal CA, MS should have to live in abject poverty to qualify in 2 yrs. That is a travesty, but unfortuately there are a lot of bleeding heart liberals that have caused the system to support many who are just working it and don’t want to really work!. Those who really need it end up suffering and that is the real shame of it all…

A fairly large percentage of SSI recipients are permanently incapable of any sort of substantial employment. We you were to meet them, you would immediately understand that.

SSI entitlement is always based on needs criteria. If you have income or resources exceeding certain minimal levels–or if you’re a child with parents who do, or are and adult and have a spouse who does–you simply don’t qualify for SSI payments, no matter how severe your impairment might be.

In my experience, many SSI recipients would like nothing better than to be able to increase their work and earnings level so as to get completely and permanently off SSI. This is because every aspect of their eligibility is monitored so closely they’re constantly having to bring in evidence, report changes, etc. You surrender much personal privacy when you’re receiving that type of benefit.

I know this from having been an SSA claims adjudicator for many years. There were the occasional claimants who abused the system–who perhaps weren’t as “disabled” as the evidence suggested. Far more common were the cases of people who should be entitled, but had tremendous difficulty establishing medical eligibility. Sometimes medical tests and records just didn’t reflect true severity of their day to day problems.