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Congrats! I just got approved for SSA disability a few months ago, after a judge ripped the initial review committee a new one. It feels good to have your illness validated, just like it's hell to be told, "You can work. You're just lazy. Get off your arse!"
And so now we both shall see what it is like to live off ... almost nothing at all.
But I bet you've got a HUGE back payment coming your way, yeah? Three and a half years is much much much too long to wait.
Yay! (did I ever tell you my Pa had to fight for SSA disability AND long-term disability benefits from his company's insurance agency? I was pretty young at the time, but it was rather brutal for a bit there).
No, really, now that I think about it THIS should be a freakin' campaign issue. I now know several people who have gone through the whole disability process, and having gone through it myself, I just have to ask why the fuck our country routinely denies disability benefits to people who very clearly need them.
I'm very happy for you, mischief, but am so so so very angry that it took the government three and a half years to approve your claim. How have you been living during that period, and on whose good grace did you have to rely?
It was bad enough for me, sponging off my mother and my boyfriend, but I only had to do it for six months or so. My claim was denied, then approved almost immediately afterwards. I didn't have to deal with the judge. My mother, on the other hand, is far more disabled than I am -- too disabled to put together a clear case for herself, and without the support of the amazing doctors I am so fortunate to have. She can't even afford the $15 co-pay to see a doctor any more. Seriously. She can't work, she can't get better, and there's nothing for her to do but sit around and think about how her life sucks. There's no one to help her, except for me, and I'm not capable of providing the kind of support she needs.
This is the sort of thing that makes me want to write my congressperson. Useless though that may be.
No one seems to pay any attention to this particular system or its failures, and it makes me SO MAD that you've been waiting three and a half years, that my mother is so sick she can't do anything and yet she can't get the help she needs, that so many of us are trying our very hardest and don't have access to appropriate care or funding.
Okay. I'll stop ranting. Congrats, mischief, of course. But just as I'm feeling happy for you, I'm also feeling outraged on your behalf. And my mother's. And, much less so, my own.
(The red tape and paperwork, by the way, are not a big hassle. You just have to go into the local Social Security office and answer some dumb questions. Then they send you money.)
Mazel Tov! Three and a half years is a lot of red tape...
Brina, don't give up on trying to get the SSI for your mom... maybe go to one of the social services agencies with her, if she's local, and/or try to get a lawyer to help (you might contact the city/social service agencies where she lives to see if there are any free legal services available). A lawyer can really help cut through that red tape. All the best...
Congrats!! Brina, you're so right- our pathetic politicians SHOULD be talking about this.
From what I know, it's basically default that EVERYONE who applies is denied unless they're in a wheelchair (and even then...). Every single person has to fight with a lawyer, which means people who don't have the money for a lawyer are basically screwed. The whole system is just pathetic, and only serves to make things worse for people who are already suffering physically.
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