We are eager to "correct the record" whenever the media reports about the Social Security disability program are inaccurate, incomplete or misleading. Please notify us when you see this type of media report so that we can respond.
NOSSCR Responds to Forbes Online – June 2012On 6/4/12, Forbes online ran an article by Paul Roderick Gregory attacking Social Security disability benefits: "Add Disability to Obama's Anti-Jobs Policies." NOSSCR President Chuck Martin's reply points out significant errors in the article.
Here are the links to both:
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Chuck Martin:
Your article reveals a surprising lack of knowledge about Social Security disability insurance and presents misinformation as fact.
Social Security is an independent agency that is headed by a Commissioner appointed by President George W. Bush. You are entitled to your own political preferences, but you have no right to try to advance them through misinformation.
The increase in the number of people eligible for disability has been expected — and planned for — for decades. It is not unexpected as you claim. You ignore that the population not only is greater in overall numbers, but has changed in composition. Due primarily to the aging Baby Boomers and large increases in women who have worked long enough to have Social Security insurance coverage, there are many more people in the disability-prone older ages that make up most disability claims. This was projected to happen, and was planned for, over twenty years ago.
It is false to claim the Social Security Administration now places “more weight” on self-reported pain. The opposite is true. Before 1984, pain alone could establish a disability, but since the Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984, that is no longer the case. Now objective medical evidence must support any claim of pain. It is also false to claim that standards for mental illnesses are “relaxed;” they have never been stricter.
Applying for the Social Security Disability Insurance program is a complex process. There is no provision anywhere in the law that entitles claimants to a “free call” from an attorney. I am proud to represent Social Security disability applicants as part of my law practice, and I along with thousands of others who practice this kind of law, help some of the neediest people in our communities navigate a daunting bureaucratic system so they can get the help they have earned through the taxes they have paid.
Disability benefits are far lower than the pay in even minimum-wage jobs. In one of the few statements you make that is factual, you say that disability claims increase when the economy is poor, but so what? That someone files a claim does not mean they will meet the very stringent requirements for disability, and if someone applying due to a bad economy does meet them, would you punish them because they were motivated enough to work despite their disability while work was available?
You transition from an assault on the disability program to a discussion of welfare and unemployment as if there were no distinction. Would you think multiple sclerosis or schizophrenia or scleroderma was irrelevant if you had them? Disability is not irrelevant, and it is not a moral failure. It could happen to you.
Your article is cynical, deceptive, and cruel. It is disrespectful toward people with disabilities who deserve better than your misinformed rant.
Charles Martin is an attorney with Martin and Jones in Decatur, Georgia, and is President of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives
- Forbes Online: Add Disability to Obama's Anti-Jobs Policies
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Chuck Martin:
- NOSSCR Responds to USA Today Editorial – February 2012
On 2/4/12, USA Today online ran both an inaccurate editorial about Social Security disability benefits and a thoughtful and informative op-ed response from NOSSCR President Chuck Martin.
Here are the links to both:
- Scapegoating Social Security Disability Claimants
(and the Judges Who Evaluate Them)
Jon C. Dubin & Robert E. Rains – March 2012
- What Should We Do About Administrative Law Judge Disability?
A response to Richard J. Pierce, Jr. – With a Reply by Richard Pierce
Jeffrey S. Wolfe & Dale D. Glendening – Spring 2012
- What Should We Do About Administrative Law Judge Disability Decisionmaking?
Richard J. Pierce, Jr. – Fall 2011Regulation Magazine, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Cato Institute)
GWU Law School Research Paper (footnoted version)
- Why Are More People Claiming Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits?
Steve Goss, SSA Chief Actuary – April 2012
