More long term unemployed seeking disability payments

[Liberal_in_LA]

More Floridians seeking disability insurance as economy sours

Attorney Garry Miracle helps disabled people get benefits through Social Security. Lately, he's been seeing a different kind of client coming through his door: the long-term unemployed.

"A lot of these people are not really qualified for disability," Miracle said. "The problem is you have a large number of people in their 40s who have lost their jobs. From that age up, it's really difficult to compete in this economy."

With unemployment checks drying up and full-time work hard to get, thousands of working-age Floridians are turning to Social Security's disability program as a last-ditch effort to keep money flowing into their households.

--------------------

For people too young to retire but too old to compete with workers in their 20s or 30s, disability is becoming a logical alternative to being penniless, Quadagno said.

"Disability is a big advantage," she said. "It's a rational response to hard times."


http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2011/sep/23/more-floridians-seeking-disability-insurance-as-ec-ar-259806/

[ChandlerJr]

1. Combine that with a larger than projected number taking early SS

fewer workers to contribute and a cut in the payroll tax and it could add up to a problem.

[sad sally]

2. Not a good trend, as the projected exhaustion date for the

Disability Trust Fund in the Trustee's 2011 report was 2018. Payment of full DI benefits beyond 2018 would require legislation to address the financial imbalance, and it's conceivable the solution would be drastic cuts.