In the UK we have a vindictive campaign against those claiming disability benefit who have been called "LTBs", lying thieving bastards, by the agency contracted to root out suspected fraud. In the US a similar purge is being promoted. American Social Security pays benefits to people who cannot work because they have a medical condition that is expected to last at least one year or result in death. Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, in his Wall Street Journal article “Yes, Mr. President, We Are a Nation of Takers.” is outraged by the specter of shiftless American males who have decided to ditch work and file for disability instead. Eberstadt believes many people filing for disability are faking it.
The number of working-age Americans relying on Social Security's disability programs has indeed increased over the past two generations. Jared Berstein, a former economist for the Obama administration, notes that much of the rise is due to simple demographics trends. As they age, baby boomers are more likely to have disabilities than they did when they were young. That’s one reason for the rise. Another is the fact that more women have joined the workforce and can receive disability. As Berstein explains, about half of the increase in disability rolls since 1990 is due to these factors. In additional more people onto disability rolls is the rising retirement age. Since the retirement age has been gradually rising since 1983, you thus get more people in their 60s applying for disability. Also, the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984 provided for certain revisions, including a change in the standards for determining mental impairments and more emphasis on the combined effects of multiple ailments in the absence of one severe impairment.
Could some of the low-income men who apply for disability actually work in the absence of benefits? In 2010, the rejection rate nationwide was 65 percent (although some claimants later succeed through appeals). Among older workers, the answer seems to be no. Researchers are able to determine this by looking at whether or not rejected applicants are able to find jobs. Older workers, they find, have a very hard time getting a job if they don’t get disability. Young workers have a better chance of getting employment some going back to the workforce with whatever disability they have often accepting whatever job they can find at lower pay.
Both in the UK and the US the real purpose of highlighting supposed benefit fraud is to shame and discourage genuine recipients from claiming.
The working class know who the real takers, the real thieves and the real liars are in society. The top 1 percent of earners’ real wages grew 8.2 percent from 2009 to 2011, yet the real annual wages of Americans in the bottom 90 percent have continued to decline in the recovery, eroding by 1.2 percent between 2009 and 2011. Almost a quarter of all jobs in America now pay wages below the poverty line for a family of four. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 7 out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage — like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains. The average pay of a Walmart worker is $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart’s employees work less than 28 hours per week and don’t qualify for benefits. Walmart earned $16 billion last year and plenty of that went to Walmart’s shareholders. The wealth of the Walton family now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined.
Capitalism used to sell us grand prosperous visions of tomorrow, full of leisure. But exploitation and oppression didn't disappear. Real wages have stagnated, debt soared, jobs have been lost and the prospects for the new generation are bleak. A far cry from the promised future
The number of working-age Americans relying on Social Security's disability programs has indeed increased over the past two generations. Jared Berstein, a former economist for the Obama administration, notes that much of the rise is due to simple demographics trends. As they age, baby boomers are more likely to have disabilities than they did when they were young. That’s one reason for the rise. Another is the fact that more women have joined the workforce and can receive disability. As Berstein explains, about half of the increase in disability rolls since 1990 is due to these factors. In additional more people onto disability rolls is the rising retirement age. Since the retirement age has been gradually rising since 1983, you thus get more people in their 60s applying for disability. Also, the Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984 provided for certain revisions, including a change in the standards for determining mental impairments and more emphasis on the combined effects of multiple ailments in the absence of one severe impairment.
Could some of the low-income men who apply for disability actually work in the absence of benefits? In 2010, the rejection rate nationwide was 65 percent (although some claimants later succeed through appeals). Among older workers, the answer seems to be no. Researchers are able to determine this by looking at whether or not rejected applicants are able to find jobs. Older workers, they find, have a very hard time getting a job if they don’t get disability. Young workers have a better chance of getting employment some going back to the workforce with whatever disability they have often accepting whatever job they can find at lower pay.
Both in the UK and the US the real purpose of highlighting supposed benefit fraud is to shame and discourage genuine recipients from claiming.
The working class know who the real takers, the real thieves and the real liars are in society. The top 1 percent of earners’ real wages grew 8.2 percent from 2009 to 2011, yet the real annual wages of Americans in the bottom 90 percent have continued to decline in the recovery, eroding by 1.2 percent between 2009 and 2011. Almost a quarter of all jobs in America now pay wages below the poverty line for a family of four. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates 7 out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage — like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains. The average pay of a Walmart worker is $8.81 an hour. A third of Walmart’s employees work less than 28 hours per week and don’t qualify for benefits. Walmart earned $16 billion last year and plenty of that went to Walmart’s shareholders. The wealth of the Walton family now exceeds the wealth of the bottom 40 percent of American families combined.
Capitalism used to sell us grand prosperous visions of tomorrow, full of leisure. But exploitation and oppression didn't disappear. Real wages have stagnated, debt soared, jobs have been lost and the prospects for the new generation are bleak. A far cry from the promised future
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