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RISING DISABILITY CLAIMS DRIVEN BY UNEMPOLYMENT
Posted by: Darrell Castle
December 17, 2009
Topic: Personal Injury
MSNBC news reported today Thursday, December 17, 2009 that applications for social security disability are up nearly 30% in the last two years. The rising number of claims are taxing an already severely overburdened system and extending the time of payment of successful claims further and further into the future. According to the Social Security Administration, which runs the two main federal disability programs, disability claims are expected to rise another 10% in 2010, to 3.3 million new claims. "These applicants aim to join the roughly 12 million Americans who received disability benefits at a total cost of $161 billion in fiscal year 2009, according to the latest figures from Social Security.
The rising numbers of claims are being driven by two main factors says MSNBC, the aging of the baby boomer generation and the slumping economy. The average age of disability claimants is now 50 and with baby boomers reaching their peak years of eligibility, claims have been soaring. The social security system is having trouble handling all the claims which causes the average wait time to back up, sometimes for years. States that have the worst economies also have the most difficult problems with the disability system.
Many people who have recently lost their jobs are coming to grips with the fact that they may never be able to find a job again, especially at their former pay level. For example; a man in his fifties who has worked in the same factory most of his life and finally has his pay up to $20 per hour is let go by the factory. He has worked for years with several lingering injuries, probably due to hard work, and maybe a nagging illness as well. He now finds that his home with first and second mortgages totaling $150 thousand is now only worth about $100 thousand and he can't sell it even at that price because he is not the only one let go by the factory. This man and his family are going to have a very difficult time in the years between now and age 65 when he is eligible for social security. He will probably lose his home, and his health insurance, need food stamps, and other public assistance. His life will never be the same or even close to it again.
In reality, people in this situation are disabled. Using the standards of our modern society, with its out sourced factories and dead retail sales, there is no substantial gainful activity that he can perform. Why not allow a bankruptcy judge to write down his mortgage to the real value of his home and re-amortize his payment accordingly? Why not put him back to work in a job where he can have his dignity back and something useful is actually produced? Jobs in the production of energy to fuel the American economy could be abundant and well paying if the forces driving it all would concentrate more on our typical man and his family and less on banks and Wall Street.
