Re: back to the original question

Smoothman, back to your original question. By now you may know that I am not the biggest fan of the big system we have all been brainwahsed into accepting and living in here in this country. Such is life. This said, from my observations of the situation of a person I'm very close to, they (the close friend) applied to SS-DI (disability income) after experiencing a serious disability that prevented them from continuing their normal employed life. No, this person was no where near what is considered "totally disabled". The injury was not a nice one to experience, having lost a major sense, but in the grand scheme of things, friend can still walk, talk, eat, breath and go through most of life's normal animations, they are just no longer able to perform the same kind of work that they had in their career for the previous 30-some years.

Part of the SS-DI forumula plays on the aspect of the age of the applicant with respect to the age of person for which the law setup this part of the system to cater to; that's a long way of saying "person of retirement age". Translation - the closer you are to being "of retirement age" without actually being of that age, the easier it seems to be for you to get approved to receive "early" compensation through sub-systems like SS-DI. Another translation - the further away one is from retirement age, the harder it is to get SS-DI. I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just more difficult, the system is designed to make you beg a little more vehemently before it grants yorur wish.

The person who's situation I was able to observe was approximately 15 - 20 years shy of traditional retirement age. Other people and friends who had more first-hand experience playing in this system told them to expect to be denied after applying to SS-DI at least for the first couple of times. Don't know why the system works this way, but this turned out to be true. My friend was denied on their first application. I think part of the game invovled here is that the system wants the applicant to make a very firm and committed request, they want there to be no doubt that your are formally begging them to assist you before they grant approval. After the first round of being denied, my friend got angry despite being told by friends to expect to be be denied the first time through. They then dug in, better prepared their ammo (the basis for application), and fired off another application along with all kinds of corroborating documents and pleas. To everyone's surprise, they were accepted on the second go round, even though the friends were saying they would likely have to experience being denied several times before being accepted. They've now been regularly receiving SS-DI compensation for several years without fail, no hiccups in the system, they are happy as far as this one aspect of their life goes.