I couldn't agree more! Blame greedy CPs too since our SS money is also used to pay kickbacks to states based on the amount collected in cs orders...

Stories like this make me crazy! Ggrrrrrrr

As someone who receives benefits for mental health issues I find this quite offensive. Mental health issues fall into many catagories, you certainly don't need to be a possible serial killer to be diagnosed with a mental health problem!!

Ideally ss would have kept his job but no one can honestly say they know what happened there... I worked shifts which made my mental health deteriorate so I had no choice but to leave... Why be in a job I can't manage when someone who is currently unemployed could be working there & not claiming unemployment??

As a christian maybe you should take a step back and think about what you have posted here.... I'm pretty sure the bible says we should support fellow man where possible... Mental health is definately something people need educating more on before thinking they're able to comment.

Sorry OP, these are just my thoughts.

BM gets Social Security for her "mental health issues" and it makes me want to kill someone. It's insane to think that someone is sane enough to raise and care for 2 children but not competent enough to care for themselves. Further, she spent years trying to collect Social Security for SS now 10's "mental issues" because a child that age would be expected to work anyway! Not to even go into the fact that neither BM nor SS have ever worked so have never paid into Social Security. I agree with the poster, particularly at 19. Your too young to have just decided to give up on a future at all.

Social Security was not established as a charity! You got back what you or your family paid in and to be very frank if you haven't paid in you aren't entitled to anything. That's exactly what's wrong with the Steps they are so entitled. I used to think it was because of the parents but it's just occuring to me that, that's exactly what our government is teach people.

I am amazed that people are able to collect so easily. I collect for my son for one more year because his father died. They pulled mine the minute my income is over 11K. How do so many collect for mental problems? I would think proving that would be difficult. Because collecting widow benefits all these years, was a pain in the ass. When I got married, I was glad to see it go. The forms every year about my income, they would over pay me then under pay me for years. I owed then I was owed...

I can see many situations in which a person is capable of working and still receives SSI (versus SSD) benefits. My stepdaughter was diagnosed with Asperger's when she was 21 (and I think there's something else going on there). While she can function within a structured household/work environment, if the structure evaporates she is lost. She will never be able to live on her own. For lack of a better word, she is child-like. She will always need a safety net and since there is no extended family the only option is to get her into a system that will allow her to live in a group home, a system that will be there for her long after her father, biomom and I are gone.

IMO, be grateful s/kid isn't living under your roof, being a direct drain on your resources. Frankly, I wish I could say the same.

It makes me mad too. My SD29 recently got FIRED from her job for low performance and yet, according to her, she is getting unemployment. That means that her former company must have lied on her separation papers and said that she was laid off. So she can mess around, not do her job, call in sick over and over and then get an unemployment check!

Whenever I hear these stories I just keep trying to tell myself not to be jealous of these people who are getting paid for doing nothing because the amount that they get paid is very low. At least that is what I tell myself.

I believe it is very very difficult to get social security disability benefits. I know people that have attempted to get social security benefits for YEARS and have been denied multiple times. If your ss was approved so quickly there must be something going on there. My dh is also on disability for a combination of physical/mental health issues. He has PTSD, depression, and a mild brain injury-along with physical problems that make it impossible for him to ever do any sort of physical labor. If you saw my dh on the street and had a conversation with him you'd probably think WTF? there's nothing wrong with this guy? But after you spent sometime around him you'd see that he is very disabled in his executive functioning, memory, moods, etc. His goal is eventually to get back to work-he'd like to try and go back to school to be retrained in a different field-but truthfully I do not think he could manage the work. He has days in which he sleeps half the day away-he has to make lists of lists of things to do and he is lucky if he accomplishes 2 things a day. sometimes he has great days and gets alot done-but he has also has days in which he accomplishes nothing. Since he walks around and looks ok-I imagine others never get how incapacitated he is. I dont even think his own family gets all the issues he struggles with.

So i agree with others-that not everyone has a "visible" disability. I dont know about your ss-but I do know it is extremely hard to get disability. My dh was given priority because he was military. So I dont think there are as many people sponging off the system as you think-perhaps it used to be this way-but not so much anymore. Sadly some people have no marketable skills and are just low functioning individuals-what they would make in a fast food restaurant working full time is not enough to support themselves and certainly not a family. It makes me understand why some of these people give up and file for disability. The government needs to think of a way to help folks that do work full time-they need to make that an attractive and viable option to encourage people to be more functional. Instead I feel our system punishes people that work in these low income jobs by taking away all assistance and making it more beneficial for them to stay on assistance.

I'm afraid I still disagree with a number of comments here. My mental health problem was only diagnosed in 2007, looking back everyone can see that they actually started around 1994!! That's 13 years during which I thought I was completely "normal" and the thoughts I was having were the same as my peers! There is no timeline for the effects of mental health issues to have presented themselves by!!!

Thinking of OPs SS I am inclined to say that there are some serious deep rooted issues there. He may be playing to claim unemployment, I can't be sure of that HOWEVER a lot of these posts read as though mental health is something that should be treated as a lesser illness.

Can someone point me in the direction of these jobs which require no interaction with others please, I suffer from extreme social anxiety & would love to apply, have no interview, get no details from an employer, reach where I need to be for work without seeing anyone else & do a full days work without any interaction.... I fail to think of a single job that this applies to!

I agree that there is a lot of playing the system & I am also fully against this but please do remember that there are also some of us claiming for genuine reasons.

I'd also like to point out that I'm also a stepmum to 2 wonderful children (ss8 sd5) because I have a mental health problem this doesn't make me incapable of loving them, unfortunately I can't always find the energy to deal with them, I can't go to a park & run around with them, I don't always go on day trips out with them but I do make sure they understand why this is, I will read their bedtime story if they want one, I do make sure that I give them hugs, I make sure they enjoy their visits to our house, I always tell them how much they mean to me and I always make sure they know that I may be stepmum but I'm also a friend if they need me..... All of these things are important to a childs development, it just happens that out of the four adults responsible for them (myself, DF, SDad & BM) one of us is unable to do certain things. I hope that growing up with this knowledge means that my skids won't have warped ideas about society & the taboo that is mental health.

I worry greatly about the world these children are to spend their lives in when I read comments that seem to be filled with nothing but ignorance!

I should probably point out here that having a mental health issue isn't the only reason I am unemployed... There are many other factors & none of them include laziness... I just think it's unfair to tar everyone with the same brush. Mental health problems are a difficult thing to deal with & as we're all individuals each case should be treated as such.

I think it's time for me to move away from this thread anyway as I am starting to feel as though people will attack for their own pleasure if I say much more.
It's unfortunate that mental health is still being treated this way, in England we have very good support for the people who need it & I can honestly say that if it wasn't for the intervention of these support networks my skids would be without that extra love that I provide them with as I wouldn't be here. It's not something that can be cured with a pill, it's a mental scar & some people recover, others are not quite so lucky.

Oh & fyi... A very dear friend of mine was buried a week ago due to hanging himself after years of mental health issues that none of us were aware of, maybe if this stigma wasn't attached to this illness he may have felt able to speak up.
Also maybe he shouldn't have been a drain on societys resources as he eventually killed himself anyway? He should have just "got on with it" (unfortunately this is exactly what he tried to do) This is a 32 year old man with a heart of gold, a beautiful daughter, a fantasic family but ultimately A MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM.

Funny to me...Heck, my son has autism and I have never even attempted to collect for him. I work with him and push him every day to overcome obstacles. After his diagnosis my entire life fell into place. The reason why the schools couldn't figure me out, the reasons why I was in "SPECIAL ED" when I was in 4th grade, the reason I have total meltdowns when things are changed around on me, how some days I just don't even want to get up from bed and others I am a freak running around doing 20 things at a time, why most of the time I start things and then become distracted and forget things...THESE ARE THE REASONS that I learn about my shortcomings, THESE are the reasons I read about what is happening inside me that doesn't happen to other people, THESE are the reasons why I make lists if I want to get anything accomplished...and I work. I did for over 20 yrs, and when that stopped, I found a way to make ANY income. Even if that meant working 16hr days to make 200USD a month. Now again I have a job which is very demanding. It is NOT necessarily ideal for me, but I work with what I have and what I know I can't do, I find ways to accomplish it.

It is NOT difficult to get SS approved. There have been many statistics that state that MOST people get automatically denied 3 times just to see if they re-apply, but not all. I have friends who have battled cancer, one who is currently on bi-weekly dyalisis and THEY WORK. They don't collect from the government. The find a way to make ends meet. They may not have a nice car, they may not get to go out to eat, no different than me...but they don't just expect someone else to pay their way if there are ways they can make things work.

If you can't work outside the home because you need to work at your own pace, you can't deal with people, etc...then find work online. Here are two that I do, now in addition to my current job, that although you will not become rich overnight, there is great potential in both. These are my pages, and you can find more information as to how to get started. No scam, no money to pay, just work at your own pace, make as much or as little as you want...

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/nuestraherencia
http://www.zazzle.com/nuestraherenciaco

PS - there ARE people who deserve it...yet I have yet to meet anyone who receives it and actually does deserve it...it seems that ALL I know that receive it are like my neighbor who claims her legs hurt, she can't walk, yet goes shopping to Marshalls 4 times a week and the rest of the time, she's at the beauty shop...or the guy who claims he "deserves" it because he's now 59 and doesn't have much of an income and too tired to work...but has a home AND a beach CONDO where I live...or the 30yr old girl who claims her boss drove her nuts and thus is now depressed and just can't work under pressure...yet has plenty of time to party and go out everyday with OUR tax dollars...

Honestly, I'd give him a freaking reason to collect! }:)