States' control over qualification for Social Security Disability Insurance is contributing to a rapid depletion of funds from the federal benefit program, which could become insolvent in just a few years, according to a new report.
Enrolment in the SSDI has increased sharply over the last decade, from 6.6 million beneficiaries in 2000 to 10.2 million in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though paid out through federal funds, state and local officials have a large say in who can qualify for the program. As a result, state officials have little incentive to keep the number of SSDI beneficiaries low. In some areas, such as New Jersey, Wyoming or Puerto Rico, more than half of those who apply for SSDI benefits are approved, according to the Journal.
Economic factors also have contributed to the dwindling of SSDI funds. As more people become unemployed, more people apply for disability benefits, according to the Journal. Government auditors say that, without any change to the program, the SSDI program will be out of money in four to seven years, the Journal reports.
****************************************************************************
SixStringStu typed:
:: "Jack"  wrote in message
:::
:::: Ticket to Work awards you with 9 months of working while
:::: still receiving your check, no matter how much you earn.
:::: After the 9 months you can earn up to $1000.00 a month
:::: and still keep your check.  If you go over your check
:::: gets cut.  What's so hard about that?
:::
::: It's not necessary to be enrolled in the Ticket To Work
::: program to take advantage of the 9-month trial work
::: period, extended period of eligibility,
::: expedited reinstatement process, and other work
::: incentives.  The primary advantage of the Ticket To Work
::: from the SSDI standpoint is that there are no medical
::: reexams while you are enrolled in the program.
:::
::: http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10095.html#part3
:::

(benefits are reduced 50% of what is earned above $65 while on SSI while working)

::: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0455025010
::
:: I think the main reason people shy away from it is out of
:: fear that a reassesment becomes obligitory upon
:: completion. As well it should be. That, in and of itself,
:: is not a reason to be fearful.

Hi Stu,

I agree with you, but OTOH I learned long ago not to trust the SSA or any
gov't agency. IMO my paranoia isn't unusual and I feel that many others agree
with me. There's nothing I'd like better than to have gone back to work
years ago although I know in my heart I couldn't do it. I can't even make a
shopping trip by myself.
   It's been an adversarial experience from day one of my SS history at every
step through the system with the exception of the people in the local
office.
   It's not the assessment I fear; it's the attitude and unfairness of my
experiences that I fear. I don't want them to even think my name or read it
anywhere if I can help it.

HTH,

Twayne`
******************************************************************************
>> BULLSHIT. THEY WILL USE TTW AS AN EXCUSE TO DO A REVIEW AND CUT YOU
OFF.
>> DO NOT TRUST THE GOV. BUREAURATS. THEY ARE NOT THERE TO HELP YOU.
>
> Please cite a case in which this has happened.

I AM NOT GOING TO GO THROUGH FILES OF 3 YEARS AGO WHEN I WAS CAREFULLY
LOOKING INTO THE SO CALLED TTW PROGRAM JUST FOR YOU. WHAT I FOUND IS THEY
DO NOT HONOR THEIR OWN PROVISIONS AGAINST CDRS IN THE TIME FRAMES THAT
THEIR OWN REGS SAY THEY SHOULD. THEY ARE LIARS AND MISFITS SAME AS MOST
GOVERNMENT GRUNTS WORKING WITHIN A DYSFUNCTIONAL SYSTEM. ITS ANOTHER BS PROGRAM THAT WAS PASSED TO GARNER SUPPORT FOR REPS AND DOES LITTLE OR
NOTHING TO HELP DISABLED GET BACK TO WORK. WHAT IT DOES DO IS HIRE MORE
BUREAURATS SUCKING OFF THE GOV TIT WITH THEIR GOLD STANDARD INSURANCE AND CANNOT FIRE PROTECTIONS AND ALSO GIVES MONEY TO THIRD PARTY COMPANIES THAT MAKE MONEY OFF THE TTW PROGRAM BY SIPHONING OFF MONEY THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE DISABLED. THEY ARE NOT FOOLING ANYONE WITH A MODICUM OF IQ WHO LOOKS INTO THEIR SO CALLED PROGRAM.
*******
>  If you are already  in the TTW program and then receive a notice about
>  an upcoming CDR, you simply respond to the phone no. or address on
>  the CDR notice and say, "I'm using a TTW."
>
> It's quite simple.
>
> Even govt. liars and misfits will follow the regulations, or else face
> the wrath of the judicial system.
>

TELL THAT TO THE PEOPLE WHO COMPLAINED THEY WERE UNDERGOING A CDR WHILE
ON THE TTW PROGRAM. AGAIN, DO NOT TRUST THE GOV. LEARNED THAT THE HARD
WAY. WHERE IS THE AVERAGE PERSON ON DISABILITY GOING TO GET THE ENERGY
AND MONEY TO TAKE THE FEDERAL GOV. TO COURT. YOUR RIDICULOUS IN YOUR
ARGUMENTS.
********************
>> You can tell the people that there are legal aid types who would
>> salivate at
>> the chance to represent them pro bono for such a case.
>
> Even if legal aid types couldn't (which in my state they can't if the
> case is considered a fee-generating case, which SS cases are in most
> instances), I think a lot of SS attorneys wouldn't have the least bit
> of difficulty taking on such a case because case won = back pay =
> percentage money for them.
>

PFFFFFT (just farted) Back pay? hahahhahhhaha. You have no idea what
you're talking about with SSA attorneys. Good luck trying to get any
attorney to take such a case. And if he does, you're only owed money
after they have ceased you which takes quite a long time. The TTW was
*supposed* to offer protections for those using it against CDRs. But I
found cases where those protections were ignored and the very use of the
"Ticket" (hahahhaha, more bureaurat speak) was used as evidence the
person could work, that plus going to VR) It's another gov. scam designed
to get credits for the lame law makers that did not fund it properly and
to hire more civil servants at pretty nice salaries with terrific
bennies, whilst disabled get screwed AGAIN.
***********************


> This is such a non-issue.  The poster who raised this non-issue is
> probably just trolling.

You're wrong. Ignorance is bliss. Go in ignorance, like a cow being let
down the shute to market.

>
> Yes there are systems glitches and the Fed. Govt. probably has more
> incompetent people >


SSA is a fiasco. No private corp. would survive 30 days with the mistakes
and inefficiency in the SSA system. I don't know how many instances I
have read of SSA cutting off benefits to living benificiaries who they
said were dead even after being contacted by the living beneficiary.
That's just one of many examples of the kind of idiots running SSA.

How did I form this opinion? By reading a REAL board, not this lame
newsgoup. A board composed of SSDI reps and attorneys and all the
mistakes they found and intentional wrongdoings and/or incompetence of
SSA and it's employees. I found out how the system REALLY works, not just
in the delusional minds of people here who lamely assume everything is ok
because nothing bad has happened to them yet. Or maybe they are shills
working for SSA posting here? Eh?
*******************
Ummm.... I worked for an attorney who handled SSDI claims and he did handle
quite a few backpay situations like I just mentioned, but... yeah... the
cases were after benefits ceased due to a CDR situation... wasn't that what
we were discussing at this point? If not, my bad.

I don't know who to complain to about TTWs creating CDRs other than your
congresscritters. Don't say writing doesn't matter, either, because I wrote
one letter to my congresscritter (which then produced letters and phone
calls from the SS Ways and Means Committee) that actually did bring about a
change in an SSA reg... concerning ex-step-children still drawing benefits
against an ex-step-parents disability claim.
**************************************************************
On 15-Mar-2011, "Steve"  wrote:

> "Jack" wrote in message
>
> >> But if you earn less than 720 in the month, it doesn't count...
> >
> > Yes
> >
> >> so you
> >> could actually have more than 9 months worth of trial work periods.
> >
> > One 9-month TWP per period of disability.  Months do not have to be
> > consecutive.
> >
> > https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0413010035
>
>
>     Two MORE questions for Jack:
>     I have been disabled for 7.5 years. I tried working in a sheltered
> environment and was able to hold the job for 14 months. I was removed
> from the rolls the day after I had to quit work. I immediately filed a
> Work Activity report showing I'd quit. Without any further ado at all,
> I was placed back on the rolls 4 years ago. EPE I think it's called.
> Soooo, my TWP is gone. Like every man alive, I wish I had more money.
> Is it my best bet to try for a part-time job in a sheltered
> environment? One that doesn't go over the limit ($1000?)
>     Also, do you have any figures on what percentage of initial CDR's
> on the mentally disabled are full CDRs?
>     Thanks Jack!
______

Well, if you do work now and monthly  earnings avg. more than the $1K, the
drop-dead longest you'll be able to work is 6 months, and that would only be
if all the conditions are met for an unsuccessful work attempt.

So it's advisable to work for a lesser amt.  When you tell SSA that you're
resuming work, be sure to tell them that the work is sheltered and they will
investigate possible subsidies.  A subsidy often occurs when an employer in
a sheltered setting pays the worker more than the value of his services.
SSA  then calculates the worker's "true" or countable earnings for
determining SGA.  There have been cases in which a sheltered worker has
received more than the SGA limit, but SSA determined that his countable
earnings were less.

I'm not aware of any data at ssa.gov to show percentages of CDRs according
totype of impairment.  Not surprisingly, psychoses and mood disorders are
reviewed to a much lesser extent than psychoneuroses and personality
disorders.

https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0413010210

DI 13010.210 Extended Period of Eligibility (EPE) – Overview
_________
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0411010145

DI 11010.145 Unsuccessful Work Attempt (UWA)
____
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0410505010

DI 10505.010 Determining Countable Earnings
A. Policy — Subsidies
*****************************************
Although a DI claim is technically a claim against the govt. and  the
claimant has the burden of proving disability, the SSDI process from the
legal perspective is considered non-adversarial at the various
administrative levels; otherwise, 100% of the cases would be denied.  In
reality, 30-40% are allowed initially, 20% at recon, and 60-65% by the ALJs.
 Overall, it comes to about 50%. SSA contacts your MD for medical evidence
and if it's insufficient, pays for additional evidence. By contrast, if you
sue someone in court for fraud and do not have sufficient proof, the
defendant is not required to get evidence to prove your case.  Court
proceedings are considered adversarial legally-speaking.  Same is true with
SSA court cases.  When your case reaches the courts, the process becomes
adversarial between you and SSA, but not before.