Bias against the disabled is as American as apple pie

[daredtowork]

14. In lieu of mincome

There should be a specific program instead of General Assistance. Because GA is just conceived as the last ditch resort for the poor, it is DELIBERATELY designed to be impossible to live on so people will just use it to avoid homelessness for a month or so and bounce back to work at an easy-to-get Walmart job. But this is a catastrophe for people applying for SSI.

Perhaps people applying for SSI should be advanced those benefits as a loan during the application process. Having tht stability of income for the past couple of years would have put me in a much better position for retraining and *getting off SSI*. Instead I've been dragged through 3 years of indigent level poverty, bureaucratic hell, and unimaginable stress just to get to my court date. My case will ultimately cost the taxpayer lot more than it should have in Medi-Cal, Food Stamps, SSI back payments, Dept of Rehab services, etc. And now you can tack the fraud investigator onto that.

Now imagine a world where people are just allowed to support themselves with standard benefits while they are pursuing a claim they are too disabled to hold down a job. If their claim is found to be spurious, the "bridge money" will need to be paid back. Or the State could consider it justly used since doctor's letters would be needed to obtain it in the first place.