This really pisses me off................

My grand niece who is 21 years old had to go down to the SS office yesterday to be reevaluated for her disability. My understanding of SSDI is that people are evaluated every three to five years. When she was 17 she was in the hospital for leg surgery which went horribly wrong. She ended up in ICU for three months, she almost died. Today she is blind in one eye and can't walk without a walker or she needs a wheelchair on her bad days.

She was in the hospital for a year and got out when she was 18. Her grandfather got her a lawyer and they sued, it took another two years but the hospital and doctors went for a 7 figure settlement. Her lawyer got her a financial adviser, and today because of that settlement she gets dividends totaling close to 80 thousand a year.

She was hysterical that SS wants to cut her off her $900 a year disability and medicare/mediciad. This pisses me off to no end as first off she gets enough money now that she should not be collecting anything and she has never worked a day in her life and never put a dime into the system until she won her lawsuit.

I on the other hand because of health reasons had to retire early and live on a small pension and a yearly dividend check. I'm 60 years old and will have to wait another two years for my SS.

This is what is wrong with the system. You have people collecting SSDI who don't deserve it because of wealth, or people who have never put into the system and are taking out money others could use.

I tried to explain to her that because of her wealth she should not be getting anything, that started a family row in which my sister, her grandma, her mother and grandfather told me to mind my own business. They said she is entitled to it and I said no one with that kind of money coming in deserves a handout from taxpayers. It went downhill from there.

My lawyer told me I should go on disability when I could no longer work, but decided against it when after we did some figuring I knew I could live OK. I'm not wealthy, nor do I live high on the hog. I have a one bedroom apartment with a broken A/C that will have to wait until next year to get fixed or buy a new one.

So here I am pissed off at another POS looking fo0r a government handout, and knowing her lawyer she will probably be able to keep collecting tax dollars that she doesn't deserve.

Man, it pisses me off just reading that!

She's gotten used to all the big dollars rolling in, but can't settle for smaller big dollars.

That's greed, in it's finest form.

Sooooooooo, just for grins, why don't a ask her to fix your A/C?

Why is she "entitled" to it?

If she was disabled due to some natural cause/genetic defect, then I'd agree that society sets up a 'safety net' to provide some basic support for disabled people. BUT she was injured by a doctor/hospital and got a settlement from them, which is there to support her for life. Now she is 'entitled' to that settlement. But I see no reason why she is 'entitled' to something from society when she is a millionaire.

road squawker said:

Sooooooooo, just for grins, why don't a ask her to fix your A/C?

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Nope, if I can't do it myself, it ain't gettin' done, that's the way I was brought up. Besides after the family row, I don't think they'll be talking to me for a while.

Seems to me you need to explain to your dear grandniece (and your other family members) the difference between an "entitlement" and a "handout". Your Social Security benefits are a bought-and-paid-for entitlement that YOU paid for earlier in life thru SS withholding taxes and said entitlement will begin paying you back in a couple years. You are entitled to it. On the other hand, the SSDI payments she has been receiving are a safety-net gift paid for by the American taxpayers. She has no "right" to the payments (since she has never paid into the SS fund), nor is she entitled to the payments continuing one more day after her legal windfall.

She should thank the taxpayers for helping with her sustenance over the past many years since her woefully tragic hospitalization. Alas, it is equally tragic that your disapproving relatives do not understand the logic of your postion.