What is one supposed to do if you have aspergers?

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Where are you getting your "most" there? With all due respect intended: I have only ever heard that from you, and I suspect it is but wishful thinking.


I suppose that rhetorical statement is dependent upon what is meant by "*literally* broke".


On paper, yes. But at the bank, "The Government" has only red numbers.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11859&page=51

Wiki suggests 63% of those who got as far as appeal were approved, based on the above link. There are others. In general if you can hold out that long and get the necessary documentation for your disability, you are more likely to be awarded SSI/SSDI at a hearing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Sec ... g_benefits



The government is not at a stage where it is incapable of spending money. Money still flows in just as it flows out. I am not saying the situation is great, but the idea that it is "broke" tends to lead to reactionary, poorly thought out anti-spending measures which simply make the economy worse (not that anyone here can do that, but the rhetoric goes all the way up to the legislative branch).



No, social security is separate from the budget. Even though the government has a deficit, social security is in the black. Unless the legislature and president decide to raid Social Security's coffers to balance the budge (which would be utter disaster) the deficit will not directly impact Social Security. It is like SS uses a different bank, or at least a different bank account.

My point is simply, push through to the hearing. Denial on application and reconsideration are pretty typical.

To me, it would take more like 90% to qualify as "most". But in any case ...


The same is true for me, but neither do I have any hope of ever actually paying it back to the lender presently making it available.


I understand, and I suspect that is at least partly because it was never even intended to be paid.

Just for fun, take a look at this:
====================================
My comments regarding recent SSA “Notice Of Disapproved Claim” letters:

SSA: Although you may have some discomfort, you are able to move about and do some lifting.
Comment: The SSA-ordered “Comprehensive Physical Examination” (08/26/2010) took place following an extended period of restful sitting (for more than an hour past my appointment time) in a comfortable chair in the doctor's waiting room. Hence, my next having little trouble “moving about and doing some lifting” during that exam does not come even close to reflecting the reality of my physical troubles confining me to a chair for most of each day.

SSA: You have high blood pressure but this condition has not damaged any major part of your body.
Comment: As noted on 12/23/2010, I actually have “Malignant Hypertension” … and its continued resistance to consistent control now leaves me highly subject to stroke or heart attack … and that is why I have recently visited two ERs and even ended up hospitalized for five days.

SSA: You are able to think clearly and care for your own needs.
Comment: That is essentially true, of course, yet it does not in any way reflect an ability on my part to do substantial work. In fact, it is because I *can* think clearly and attend to my own needs that I do *not* now continue trying to just ignore serious issues and the ever-resultant pain of substantial-work efforts.

SSA: Your condition results in some limitations in your ability to perform work related activities.
Comment: While that acknowledgment of at least “some limitations” is greatly appreciated here, that acknowledgment is also a gross understatement.

SSA: However, these limitations do not prevent you from performing work you have done in the past as a/an fork lift driver, as you described.
Comment: That is not true. Along with my hypertension-medication-induced drowsiness, my epiretinal-membrane-blurred and -distorted vision has now become a serious safety hazard in any kind of driving or machinery-operating situation. With all related things considered, it would now be unconscionable for me to ever again drive for hire.

SSA: We have determined that your condition is not severe enough to keep you from working.
Comment: Other than for lack of documentation, no such determination is even possible. Even the thought of merely looking for work overwhelms me.

SSA: We considered the medical and other information, your age, education, training, and work experience in determining how your condition affects your ability to work.
Comment: The overall picture here cannot be complete without considerations of my vision troubles and the socially-crippling effects of Asperger’s Syndrome (self-assessed) and my having already lived many years under its great strain.

SSA: If your condition gets worse and keeps you from working, write, call or visit any Social Security office …
Comment: My condition worsens daily, and I hope to again soon do that.

SSA: Doctors and other staff looked at this case and made these decisions.
Comment: Doctors and other staff looked at this case and made these decisions without having a complete picture within view.

SSA: ... your health problems must keep you from doing any substantial work.
Comment: That is my case. I cannot remain on my feet for sufficient amounts of time to do the mechanical work of my past without experiencing crippling, chronic pain, and the ever-growing strain of reduced visual acuteness and my AS/HFA-crippled neurological function now preclude me from working at all.

SSA: Your health problems must last, or be expected to last, for at least 12 months in a row, or result in death.
Comment: The worst of my health problems are irreversible and are presently leading me toward death.
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However, it would be foolish of me to even try to have that kind of conversation with "The Government", eh?!

Hi,
I thought that it might help to know that money doesn't exist anyway.

All I can suggest is getting more documentation and keep pushing for it. We can argue back and forth all day, but the fact is it does get paid out.

Like many things, it isn't about what is true or right, it's all about playing the system, that is what the lawyer is for. For the record, I spent 5 years doing the appeals, went through savings, 401 K, worked at menial jobs until I would meltdown and walk out (for some reason, maybe just who I am, some people have often liked to "get to me", grabbing, touching, personal insults).
Place where I went for therapy was a joke because it was cheap, idiot psychiatrist who worked there for about a month did the important assessment (not the therapist I saw regularly), and it was the assessment they went by in the final decision.
You see, it's really a game, everyone involved is only worried about covering their own ass and keeping their own paychecks coming in.

The government is not only broke, it's in debt by billions.

The ss system money is supposed to be separate from other monies.

There is a theory that the part of the population that does well, doesn't get depressed, operates on the "self serving bias", that is, they lie to themselves in their own favor. The positive attitude is about lying to oneself, spinning. So, as I try to learn to do this, I take the fact I don't get help to be a GOOD THING, that there is more for me than collecting check. That the hundreds of difficult situations I have been through does NOT mean there is not a place for me, employment wise, where I will shine and be appreciated and left alone for the most part.
That the situations where I was considered odd, weird, etc, were more about others being mediocre, and that I don't need somebody's approval to be OK.
All my life it seems so many behave as if life is a popularity contest, but this attitude is what leads to mob mentality, great atrocities throughout history, most lies and betrayals. In fact many people have seemed like pack animals who sacrifice important things to be part of a group, and I am glad I am not like that.
Not being a follower can mean you are a leader.

Our (UK) gov says it's broke, but I feel it's every citizen's duty to behave as if it were flushed, when it comes to benefits and services. As far as I'm concerned, until they tell me exactly who they owe all that money to ("the European Bank" or "China" won't do the trick, I want the names of the individuals), they've not made their case. But whether or not they're lying, they're cutting, and I don't know of any effective way of stopping them.

I've only applied for one benefit - the cooking part of the disability living allowance - and they turned me down. I submitted a more detailed explanation of why I should get the cash, and asked them to reconsider....they turned it down again. On their reply it said that they would give me more information about why not, if I asked them. So I asked them, but they merely reiterated their opaque opinion: "you do not need help with cooking a main meal." Unfortunately, the Citizen's Advice helpline was snowed under with people needing help, so I never got to speak to anybody except via the feedback form on their website, and all they could say was that they were sorry and that things would probably get even worse once the spending cuts kicked in. I felt there was little use in appealing without professional guidance, and if I could afford a private legal advocate, I wouldn't be looking for disability benefits.

I've scrutinised all the documents and information since then, and although I'm no expert, I reckon it failed because I couldn't supply a written statement from a member of the Great And Good (health professionals) to corroborate my claim. Unfortunately my cooking problems aren't in my Aspie diagnostic report.....I toyed with the idea of asking my GP to write something for me, but it seemed so silly, because how can somebody who has never seen me try to cook a main meal possibly know whether I'm being honest? I'd be embarrassed to ask for a letter like that. But that's the way I believe the social security bureaucrats work - my word is Not Good Enough, but the word of a Rich Bugger is the Plain Truth, even if he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Your local Member of Parliament might be able to help, if it's pretty clear that the social people are cocking you around. In that case, it wouldn't be a written medical opinion, it would be a phone call to ask them what they're bloody playing at, which again I couldn't effectively do myself because knowing who I am they'd just blow me off.

On the other hand, I wouldn't underestimate the need to write a high-quality application that points out exactly why you're entitled to the benefit. Just that it won't be enough on its own.

Yes, I believe that is the so-called "bottom line" here. I spent too many years making my own best effort rather than running to the doctor for every little ache or pain ... and now I am told the SSA likes/needs to see at least two years of disability documentation and I might not even live that long!

No one knows if they will be here in two years. No one knows if they will be here tomorrow.

Sure, and I had not meant to be predicting anything. It just used to be so frustrating to be sitting in a doctor's office trying to get help while listening to comments about being such an able-bodied man who just needed to stop smoking in order to avoid ending up drooling in a nursing home after a stroke or another heart attack. But then while hospitalized over my malignant hypertension a little over two weeks ago, a different doctor finally asked whether I would like to talk with a psychiatrist after I had said I did not know whether to go to a hospice or to the psych ward next ... and now the attorney I had talked with has just sent me a letter saying I *should* proceed with an appeal to the SSA after having just been hospitalized. I hope he is right. The kind of "No" you have heard is quite final, and that same attorney had previously told me to not even bother with an appeal.

I just want to let the original poster know that it can get better, don't give up and don't let thread hijackers who want to complain about how tough they have it get you down. Try to find a lawyer, go to the doctors and therapists available to you, even though they usually don't really care. Best of luck