The American Association for Disability Policy Reform    

—   rehabilitation first   —

Playing to Win

If you are applying for disability benefits and want to win, you have to play the game right.   Here's what you need to do:

Be very careful about forms because the clerks (examiners) who process cases are pressured to do too much in too little time.   They have to take shortcuts to avoid getting fired.   They generally can't read everything in the record and they have to make decisions quickly.   For example, many times I have seen a claimant state that he or she shops only to have that interpreted (distorted) to mean that the claimant can stand, walk, lift and carry without limitation.   At the disability determination services production triumphs over quality (details).

In order to avoid the pitfalls caused by examiners working too fast,

If you are applying for disability benefits and have money, you can increase your chances of being declared disabled.   If you don't have money, or don't at least have generous health care coverage, the system is stacked against you (details).

If you have money or generous health insurance, here is what you can do to win:

You can see that most of these steps require money, or at least good medical insurance.   If you don't have either of these, you're likely to suffer the discrimination the disability program inflicts on the poor (details).


Serious question: Is it legal to exploit the government's incompetence to get disability benefits?   Absolutely!   Is it right?   We're not so sure.   But surely it is right to reform our national treatment of the disabled so that those who are seriously disabled get the careful evaluation they deserve and the support they need (details) while those who might return to work are given the help they need returning to work (details).   For over one-half trillion dollars a year, we could do much better than we are doing now.


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Last updated on 1/17/2020.