American employee participation rate data

And PJ, I have never made one birther claim.

PJ - here are 33 doctors who are involved in the disability scam

NEW YORK (AP) - A former Long Island Rail Road conductor has been ordered to repay nearly $295,000 in connection with the LIRR disability fraud case.

Christopher Parlante was a key government witness in two trials that ended in convictions of five people in the scam.

Newsday (https://nwsdy.li/1h7rfyQ ) says he is the latest defendant to avoid prison time. At sentencing Tuesday, he was ordered to repay the money at a rate of just $25 a month (which will be paid off in just under 1,000 years)

Prosecutors have arrested 33 doctors, consultants and former workers in what they say was a long-running scheme to falsify disabilities. Only 10 have been sentenced to prison.

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/21/ex-lirr-worker-escapes-prison-in-disability-scam/#ixzz33aYqBBQ0
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Here it is straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. Disability Planner: How We Decide If You Are Disabled Oh and thanks Boiler.

Of the five criteria listed three of them have to do with your employment and or employment history.

No...only one question has to do with your employment and or employment history.
Question 1) Are you working? (If yes, then you obviously do not qualify for disability.)

The other "work related" questions are medical. They ask if you are able to do the work you did previously or any other kind of work. There are no questions that ask if any of those jobs are available. Or the degree of success you've had finding work.

Is the president listed as a suspect?

Are you working -if your not or even if you are working, but making less than 12k a year you can qualify for SSDI.

If your able to do the work you did before - If you got your conditions diagnosed after you lost your job a lot of the cases will revolve around could you do the same job if one was offered, but there has to be jobs in your line of work available otherwise it drops to the 3rd criteria.

Is there any other work you can do? - This requires an assessment of the job market in your area and the type of physical or mental requirements of the jobs available to see if you could hold such a job.

Thats not what your link says...

"What do you consider when you decide if I can adjust to other work ?

If we decide you cannot do the work you did before, we consider your remaining ability to do other work considering your age, education and work experience. We assess these factors with your capacity to work to determine if you can be expected to adjust to other work that exists in the national economy "

"How do you evaluate the effect of my age, education and work experience on my remaining capacity to work ?"

In our regulations, we have tables of rules that we use as guides to evaluate how your age, education and work experience affect your remaining capacity for work.

For example, a person with the following vocational profile would be found disabled according to our tables of medical-vocational guidelines:

Capacity for work:

•Can lift no more than 20 pounds for up to 1/3 of an 8-hour workday, and
•Can lift up to 10 pounds for 2/3 of an 8-hour workday, and
•Can stand and/or walk for about 6 or more hours in an 8-hour workday and
•Has no other limitations
Age: 57

Education: High school education

Work Experience: No skills that can be transferred to work he is physically able to do.

However, if this individual had skills that could be used for work that is within his capacity and that exists in significant numbers in the national economy, we would find him not disabled.

They do asses the jobs in your area. For example when my wife first got canned from her job back in 2011 they said there were plenty of nursing jobs within a hundred mile radius of us and as nurse she was only expected to work three days a week with emphasis on the three days a week thing.

Now that is the most euphemistic way one could choose to describe a nursing career. The reality is those are three consecutive 12 hour days you spend on your feet constantly lifting heavy patients and equipment. If the person scheduled to relive you doesn't show up for some reason or there is an emergency you have to stay. I don't think my wife ever put in less than 44 hours a week even though she was only scheduled for 36.

I am confident if we had appealed we would have won based on the reality of the profession. However, my wife wanted to continue to try and work. We are currently waiting on an initial determination for her disability claim filed back in Janurary. They keep scheduling her for physical exams she keeps getting sick and put back in the hospital and can't keep the exam appointments. As bad as she is now I wouldn't be surprised if her initial determination is still a no based on the idea that there is a fictional job out there somewhere she could work.

Here's a few articles about how the SSA is so overwhelmed and approving applications w/o proper scrutiny.

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security is so overwhelmed by disability claims that some officials are awarding benefits without adequately reviewing applications, potentially adding to the program's financial problems as it edges closer to the brink of insolvency, congressional investigators say in a new report.

In more than a quarter of the 300 cases reviewed by congressional staff, decisions to award benefits "failed to properly address insufficient, contradictory or incomplete evidence." In many cases, officials approved disability benefits without citing adequate medical evidence or without explaining the medical basis for the decision, according to the report by the Republican staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

In some cases, it appeared that administrative law judges struggling to reduce backlogs didn't take the time to review all the evidence, the report said. The judges are expected to rule on at least 500 cases a year, with one judge deciding an average of 1,800 cases a year for three straight years, the report said...."

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/social-security-disability-benefits_n_1879791.html

"The Social Security Administration says the agency's administrative law judges should decide 500 to 700 disability cases a year. The agency calls the standard a productivity goal, but the lawsuit claims it is an illegal quota that requires judges to decide an average of more than two cases per workday.

"When the goals are too high, the easy way out is to pay the case," said Randall Frye, president of the Association of Administrative Law Judges and a judge in Charlotte, N.C. "Paying the case is a decision that might be three pages long. When you deny benefits, it's usually a 15- or 20-page denial that takes a lot more time and effort...."

https://news.yahoo.com/judges-lawsuit-disability-system-crisis-180420469--politics.html

First off I am highly skeptical of any congressional investigation that begins with the premise we are paying too much out in disability claims. Secondly if they are deciding three times as many cases as they should I’d suggest the problem is they need to hire three times as many folks to review the cases. Of course that takes more $$$ and we know how the small government crowd feels about that.
However, I think what you would find even if you hired those folks is that 95% of those cases were decided correctly it is just there aren’t any josbs for folks even with minor impairments in 2014. How many greeters does Wal-Mart need?