Crisis Mode

Part of being disabled, whether mentally and/or physically, is dealing with the government bureaucracies. I'm in crisis mode right now. A week ago, the Social Security Administration (SSA) sent me a letter stating that they are cancelling my disability benefits (i.e. my SSI checks). They stated that I did not provide the information they had requested regarding my part-time job from last year, and this was the reason for their action.

Basically, the SSA is incompetent. I complied with all of their requests for information regarding my job. Most of all, I submitted my check stubs that they requested along with a letter explaining that I no longer work. Still, something went wrong and SSA is cutting my SSI benefits.

I don't care that much for the $500 a month I get from them. My parents pay my expenses anyway, so the $500 is just spending money. However, when Social Security cuts my SSI benefits, I will lose my Medicaid health insurance. This health insurance is critical. It pays for my mental health care as well as my physical health care. One of my psychiatric medications alone costs over $600 a month. I imagine the bills for my treatment must be enormous. I cannot pay for my health care on my own.

Eventually, I went to the SSA office in North Las Vegas, and after a long wait, I spoke to a bureaucrat. After much confusion, she finally said if I get a letter from my former employer stating my last day at work, Social Security will restore my SSI next month. Apparently, Social Security thought I was still working, even though I specifically wrote to them that I quit in January.

Just as an example of their incompetence, consider this. The bureaucrat said I sent them a letter on January 31, 2008 stating I was working for a community college. I actually sent them that letter in September 2007 when I started the job. The Social Security Administration was utterly confused.

I went to the college to see my old boss, but she wasn't around. I left her a note with the staff explaining that I need a letter stating my last day at work to present to SSA. In my note, I had asked her to send the letter to me at my home address. I intend to send the letter myself to Social Security. I was disappointed when the letter didn't arrive in my postal mail box today. The only thing I can do now is call her to ask her if she sent the letter yet.

If Social Security were a business, they would be bankrupt by now. My aunt says they purposely mess up people's cases in order to force us to come into the office (where we have to wait for hours to be seen). That way, they drum up activity and work for themselves in order to keep their office from being shut down by their superiors. Thus they keep their jobs by showing all the lists of people who patronize their office.

I can't say exactly what I plan to do in the future. I can say that I plan to get a full-time job and get off Social Security disability. It's no fun to be on welfare. While I will always be mentally disabled, as long as I have appropriate treatment I should be able to function like any other person. Still, I have to hide my particular disability from the people around me and especially from my future employers.