I was struck by something I heard the other day on a radio show. The host of the program was making the point that he thought people are just getting meaner and nastier. I see examples of that every week when I read emails from people who, for whatever reason, really despise the Social Security disability program.
Their meanness and hatred permeate their emails as they describe people getting disability benefits as “deadbeats” and “fakers” and other terms I can’t print in this column.
I understand there are folks who have legitimate concerns about the program and how it is run. I’ve addressed those issues in many past columns. But today, I’m talking about people whose concern has been blinded by downright contempt.
All this made me think of a column I wrote a couple of years ago about this phenomenon. I’m going to reprint it here today. I’m hoping now that we are in the holiday season, a combination of what I write here and maybe some Christmas spirit will open the hearts and minds of these hatemongers. So here is that old column.
I was heading into one of our local grocery stores the other day. I noticed a few people gathered around a car that was parked in one of the spots near the entrance reserved for people with disabilities. And I heard someone yelling. As I got closer to the car, I saw an old guy ranting and raving at the driver of the car, a woman maybe in her mid-40s. There was a younger man in the passenger seat. I can’t repeat the “colorful” language the guy was using. But here is a snippet of what I heard: “Why the [expletive] are you parking in a handicapped spot? You don’t have a sticker and there’s obviously nothing wrong with you!”
The woman got out of her car. And with a totally unexpected air of quiet dignity, she calmly told this man: “My son has end stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He has about 3 months to live. I would think that for the last 90 days of his life, he ought to be able to park a little closer to the front door of this grocery store.”
The jerk slumped away, muttering something unintelligible. The small crowd of people were booing him and actually started clapping for the driver of the car. It really was an eye-opening moment.
I just wish I could show some of this same dignity when I respond to the frequent emailed rants I get from so many people about the Social Security disability program. I’m always puzzled why so many people simply assume that most folks getting disability benefits, just like people parking in a handicapped spot, are pulling a fast one on the rest of us.
Getting a handicapped sticker for your car is one thing. Getting Social Security disability benefits is an entirely different matter. Please, dear readers, believe me: As someone who worked with the disability program for many years, I know you have to be really severely disabled to qualify for benefits. Of course, I’m not naive enough to think that out of the millions of Social Security disability beneficiaries, there aren’t a few bad apples in that big barrel who are getting benefits they don’t deserve. But I assure you, their numbers are few and far between.
The Social Security disability program is universally recognized as one of the most difficult programs to qualify for. You simply don’t get benefits if you have a bad back or a bum knee. You must have a severe physical or mental impairment that is expected to keep you out of work for at least 12 months—or a condition that is terminal.
Having said that, I can tell you from experience that everyone seems to know someone (a brother-in-law, a neighbor, that guy in the handicapped parking space) whom they believe is getting such benefits fraudulently.
For example, someone recently complained to me that she knows a woman who is getting disability benefits who takes kickboxing lessons. Someone else saw a neighbor who is on disability cleaning his gutters. Another reader told me about a guy “with a fake disability” who was painting a house. Somehow, those little snippets of daily life proved to them that these folks were cheating the system.
Well, just because a woman is taking kickboxing lessons and a guy is cleaning his gutters and another guy is doing some painting does not prove they are healthy and don’t deserve disability benefits. Maybe one has cancer, another has some severe mental issues, and the other has kidney disease. I don’t know. And the point is, these accusers don’t know either. You simply cannot make broad assumptions about their eligibility for disability benefits without knowing all the facts.
Someone else told me about a guy who was getting disability benefits who “gambles all his money away every month at a local casino.” She went on to say: “This proves he’s a crook and the system is corrupt.”
Well, no. It does not prove that. It might prove the guy is a bad money manager. But that’s got nothing to do with the fact that he has a disability that qualifies him for monthly benefits. If there was a little old lady who gambled away half of her Social Security retirement check every month, would you say that “proves the system is corrupt?” No. It just proves there is a woman probably not making the smartest decisions about how to spend her Social Security retirement money. And so too, there are people who don’t spend their Social Security disability money very wisely.
But now that I’ve made those points, I can tell you this. I’ve been working with the Social Security program long enough (almost 50 years) to know that no matter how much preaching I do, some of you will just not believe me. You are just absolutely convinced that people are cheating the system. Well, if that’s so, then let me put the burden on you. If you claim to know someone you think is getting Social Security disability benefits he or she is not due, I challenge you to do something. Turn that person in. Call the Social Security fraud hotline at 800-269-0271. Or go online at SocialSecurity.gov and click on “Report Fraud” under the “Contact Us” link. Your report can be anonymous.
But I also know, from experience, that most people won’t do that. Why? My guess is they are really not sure their accusations are right. Like the guy shouting at the poor woman outside the supermarket, they just close their minds and open their yaps and let hate-speak spew out.
Well, that was the old column I wrote. Once again, if you are one of these hate-mongering tongue-flappers, I hope the holiday spirit rubs off on you. And Merry Christmas!
