Told ya before...the US form of SS is far to lenient...what this couple do and how they go about it should be a state affair.....SS should not be involved...
Well I don' think you understand what's this about, so let's put this in proper perspective;
1 - it is Social Security Supplemental Security Income, a.k.a. SSI. It is not really social security. It is intended to help people but because it is like getting SSI for a kid who never put into the system, it is a mess and costly.
2 - in order to qualify, one has to go through a process which is subjective through a Disability Determination Services (DDS) in the state where the person resides.
3 - In most cases, adjudication is made by a federal judge when an application is made and processed through the DDS with proper medical records.
The problems are many, one of the biggest things is a lack of proper mental health uniformity to actually determine a disability when making a classification about a patient. A lot of mental health professionals will use broad definitions to classify people without observing the individual directly or not taking enough time, when in fact that there is no evidence of such a disability caused by any of the factors that the mental health professional claims. This coupled with the broad spectrum of what is defined as a disability today makes it very easy for someone to get SSI. Being blind is a disability, taking drugs is not.
Example in the past 15 years, the definition of ADHD and ADD have been broaden so much to the point that improper diagnosis are common among doctors and mental health professional. The kid fidgets in class, so the kid has ADHD. A lot of parents of alleged ADHD and ADD kids applied for and got SSI. The kids had signs of it by the new definitions handed down 20 years ago but were in fact normal. The Feds investigated the claims, some were overturned but a large majority of them were not.
The same holds true for drug addicts and former drug addicts, they can easily qualify for SSI while people with PTSD have to jump hoops just to qualify.
I know of several who have legitimate cases, a few won't apply because of the hassles while those who do, have been refused a number of times, one can't work because of her auto accident injuries and her paralysis.
We have roughly 8 million collecting SSI, Medicaid and the related benefits and maybe out of that 8 million, 3 million actually could use it.
