PBS: Are Americans a Stingy Lot of People?

[daredtowork]

77. I have been in the SSI application process for over 2 years now

This is another thing that people don't understand about "welfare" and how it might be impacting your neighbors. If they become disabled and have to apply for SSI/SSDI, the application process can take many years - especially if they have a rare or complex condition and didn't have a lawyer up front. "Welfare" is what picks up the slack while those disabled people are waiting. The way welfare policy is written now, you have disabled people going without necessities, falling into homelessness, and being driven into mental illness simply because they have to wait a long time for SSI.

My wait may have been longer than usual because of the Affordable Care Act - perhaps there was some idea that this might make a difference in disability cases, as it did make a difference in mine. But meanwhile that leaves me on the hook for a couple of years of welfare, which is a LOAN where I live.

As for whether I can work, Social Services may have pulled the rug out from under that. My condition had improved in some major ways. However, it was uncertain how long the medication I'm on would work, and it has a lot of side effects - so I was being optimistic in starting to work. (Note that once I start to work, that proves I can work, which would take my off the SSI track after investing over 2 years in that application process, so it was a risky step to take.) But now with Social Services putting me under this immense amount of stress and messing with my medication, I'm having a lot more problems. And I can't see or talk to the specialists I would normally talk to about it.

In regard to my petition, I did post here about it in order to get it up to 50 sigs, and about 15 people were kind enough to sign and 42 people recced it. But what I don't understand is - over 2000 people viewed it and didn't sign or rec. What part of the State writing welfare policy to punish work didn't they understand? How could they not realize that it's policy like this that underlies a lot of the "engineered" poverty in the U.S.?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025420117