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Lawyers Scalp $1.2 Billion From Social Security In 2013
Via David Stockman's Contra Corner blog,
Social Security’s financial woes due to an aging American population are hardly news.
However, the elderly are not the only group covered by Social Security. Since 1956, disability has been included as a part of Social Security, providing income to those who are physically unable to work. Along with the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), these two programs have provided a booming industry for attorneys, according to a report from the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy.
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is no small program, costing taxpayers more than the combined cost of federal welfare payments, housing subsidies, food stamps and school lunches. Attorneys receive taxpayer-funded fees each time they successfully place a client in the program, which incentivizes them to encourage clients to file disability claims. The fees are capped at 25 percent of the successful client’s SSDI award, or $6,000, whichever is less.
Attorneys took in $1.2 billion in such fees in 2013, up from just $425 billion in 2011.
In 2010, the report notes that nine of the top 10 highest-earning SSDI lawyers made more than $2 million just in fees that year. Claimants’ representatives need not be attorneys to receive the fees, a rule that changed in 2004 when Congress voted to allow non-lawyers to represent disability claimants. What resulted, however, was an explosion in profits to SSDI-focused law firms such as Binder and Binder, which hired large teams of people to work on disability claims and sent their profits soaring, reaching $88 million in 2010.
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Full report here:
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We scalped some folks
1.2 billion post-Bernanke FRNs = about 18 million pre-Bernanke FRNs.
were paying some folks that dont deserve it
Hey Tylers, do you want to see another area where SS is getting scalped? Look at long term disability insurance companies. Hartford is particularly bad about this. If somebody gets disabled, and I mean truly disabled, like a really fucked up back, or both of their legs get chopped off kind of fucked up, not "I can't find work and I have some mild pain on occasion," they'll provide the payments that they were contracted to provide. The person will pay taxes on those payments too. Then they'll start threatening the person, looking for any reason possible stop the payments. They'll eventually threaten the person if that person doesn't get on SS disability. Then that person will get a big back payment from SS, that is also taxed. Now, the insurance company, while still looking for any reason possible to drop the person will state that they are owed the entirety of what they paid from that SS money, despite the fact that it has been taxed twice. They don't give a shit. They'll start calling the already taxed payments a loan. If you get back payments for a dependant, they'll want that too, and if they come for it in court, they'll get it. If they manage to drop the person, that person will have to deal with ERISA, which is a tangled bullshit rat's nest of a law. If you find a place where they simply breached thier contract, and try to take them to court, they'll remove it to federal court claiming its an ERISA issue when it is not, your consumer attorney won't know jack shit about ERISA, and at best, you'll spend the next year or 5 arguing that a breach of contract case is not subject to ERISA.
The best part is that a lot of the SSDI lawyers report back to the insurance companies once somebody gets awarded back payments. It's a completely corrupt system.
Big WHOOP...
Look what a War cost these Days?
Like any of this will matter anyway in time.
I say give everybody who gets any entitlement Double the amount they are recieving now.
Who really cares at this point? If it stops someone I know from becoming a victim of a crime, its all good.
Send every American a check for $50,000.00 for Xmas Santa O !
War is bad, yes, but you don't care that, even when somebody has a legitimate disability claim with private disability insurance, those insurance companies are illigitimately using a very confusing law, fear and intimidation to use SSDI as a backdoor subsidy program while fucking people over? That's not even getting into the people who get onto SSDI not because they're injured and can't work, but because they can't or won't find work and weasel their way into it. SSDI has become yet another form of corporate welfare. Insurance companies are part of the FSA.
Somebody once said
BURN THIS MOTHERFUCKER DOWN!
How about "LET THIS MOTHERFUCKER BURN ITSELF DOWN!"
A million dollars a year is small change for California Senator Feinstein, whose war profiteering (over $250 million for her family construction companies) and corruption has cost not only taxpayers billions of dollars but led to the deaths of thousands of soldiers on worthless wars in the Middle East. Stockman is a garbage source of information, a dim wit supporter of "trickle down" economics who claims to know better now. Once a liar, always a liar.
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/diannefeinsteininsidetraitor25apr13.shtml
A relative of mine and a family friend both applied for SSDI due to various physical ailments/disabilities. BOTH of them were denied 3 separate times after appealing and eventually going before an administrative law judge.
It sure doesn't sound like its as easy as its made out to be. BTW they both had lawyers.....didn;t seem to help.
Oh well I guess the illegal aliens, err undocumented citizens deserve the benefits instead....
The system is set up this way. It's an automatic denial the first time, lawyers or no.
The issue is on try #2 or #3 usually they'll get it -- even if there's no disability. People are aware of this and just put in their time. There's a couple people I know on the fringes of my social circle that are completely capable of working and decided they'd rather join the FSA instead, and they both went the SSDI route and brag about it.
Claims are double what they were just a few years ago because everyone in the system knows it's secretly growing into a long-term unemployment program instead of a disability system.
Look at my post above. I won't dispute that a lot of people are getting SSDI payments illegitimately, as everything that I have seen says that this is happening, but even when somebody has a legitimate disability claim, insurance companies force them onto SSDI and try to get the back payments. SSDI is acting as a back door subsidy for them. The system is corrupt from top to bottom, and if fucks people no matter if the deserve it or not.
Scalped? really?
I thought the attorneys worked very hard to fulfill the requirements of the Government in preparing documents for the disabled to ensure they can get a normal bearable life, instead of being unattended, forgotten and uncared for.
This Attorneys got 25% or just $6000 whichever is less. Which means after working on a client for weeks, and going thru the Government bureaucracy, attorneys got just $6000.
How come we define such hardworking individuals as scalpers of SS?
If you think SS system is paying too much, then change the system. stop blaming the hardworking American
We'll scalp some lawyers. Real good.
I don't want a job, therefore I must be disabled.
+10 disability parking spots for the obese.
Fantastic post.
"Attorneys took in $1.2 billion in such fees in 2013, up from just $425 billion in 2011"
I'm confused.
Why make trillions when you can make......... billions?
http://youtu.be/-vohNUTTx3A
Would you stop actually reading the articles and just react to the headline like you're supposed to?
Lol.... Sorry I forgot. I guess that's what happens when I take weekends off.
I aint red a post since I was ate ears old.
I was doing some wondering myself. Saw this as the last sentence of the intro: "Attorneys took in $1.2 billion in such fees in 2013, up from just $425 billion in 2011."
I was under the belief that "just $425 billion" was in fact a good $423.8 billion OVER the referenced $1.2 billion.
In other news, Tyler D. have actively distanced himselves away from a dangerous, error-correcting concept, called ... " PROOF-READING. "
A lawyer is like a hired gun:
Their job is not to add value, but to extract it.
Hire accordingly.
The word is mercenary...
Pimps for the welfare state.
Legal pirates engaged in legal plunder in the legal system.
This sounds a page out of Greece, where a whole island population pretended it needed hearing aids on social security !
There must be a lot of Greek immigrants in the US as Papandreou type lawyers !
It's Lefkada island, which btw is an extraordinary beautiful island, been there thrice, where from the 35000 residents 700 of them were having a legally type of blindness... The scandal was revealed in 2011, but authorities didn't say anything about the period those incidents were documented...
New data shows S.S. insolvent by 2024 , up from 2033.
This will just make it happen sooner.
Google Future's End Social Security Insolvent 2024 to see the research and chart.
Well, OK, a couple of things.
1. It's already insolvent now. The "SS trust fund" was spent over a decade ago. We're in full pay-as-you-go mode, which is what SS was from the very beginning. Except this time demographics are going to wrong way.
2. There are other government entitlement programs already running even further in the red. ALL OF THEM GET THEIR MONEY FROM THE SAME PLACE. When (if) one goes insolvent, they all do simultaneously.
a decade ago?? lol, dude, dig a little deeper. The filing cabinet has had nothing but I.O.U.s in it for DECADES, many. There is no money. .gov has been "borrowing" and spending every dime since damn near the inception. If they were not able to tax every income producing american, every day, there would be zero to pay out. SS has been broke, like every other illegal ponzi scheme, since day one.
On average, we actually pay more into social secuity than we ever get out of it. It's medicare that fails to pay for itself. If the oligarchs would keep their hands out of SS, it would be solvent.
um, except that social security taxes are used to buy treasuries... so, they took the "good" money and replaced it with IOU's.
cue the dumb and dumber scene: "those are IOU's. they're as good as money. Look, this one's a car. $275 thou... you might want to hang on to that one."
FU, dot.Gov. You assumed all power, and abdicated all responsibility. The hangmen will be looking for you. Madame LeFarge is knitting your execution papers as we sit.
All good and valid points.....and I undestand and agree that S.S. is a Ponzi and has been broke for decades with politicians' hands in the cookie jar every year.
But the paper insolvency will be hitting the main stream press before the end of the decade. Look for major pressure on the Republican president and congress in 2019 leading up to the elections to shore it up with higher taxes for all....skinnier payouts for old farts.....and a higher minimum age to extact wihout penalty. Look for this to hit the economy hard as old farts stay on the work force even longer.....and spend even less than they had planned in their golden years.
I'd be more worried about the fraud than the fees.
to some people..this is their job...getting government benefits...but hear them scream if you ever get close to or propose to cut their benefits
The screaming will be worse when it goes insolvent but of course, that will be someone else's problem or so they assume.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." From Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 2, Act 4, Scene 2.
Shakespeare - A man truly ahead of his time.
I wonder if after he wrote that, he knew it would be quoted for eons. I hope so
Followed up by The Eagles........."Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight
You don't want to work, you want to live like a king
But the big, bad world doesn't owe you a thing".
I'm getting ready to help someone who had a stroke file for SSDI and you would think it would go thru no problem. But it is almost impossible to get approve UNTIL you get an Attorney and get scalped for $6000 AFTER waiting 3 years !!
Yeah, I've seen that happen before but lawyers are the ones writing the rules....
Yep. Must get shot down few times, then your paid.
Yep, my sister just got her Obama SSDI cheese approved. I told her just go ahead and get an Attorney otherwise you will have to wait that much longer. Even with the Attorney it got shot down the first time but got approved on the appeal.
In 1984, they wouldn't consider my dad(congestive heart failure), either. He died in Jan. '85. Meanwhile, I've known others who have drawn for mental issues (too darn lazy to get a job) since before then, still collecting! The welfare state is selective in the voters they put on the dole.
You would have to be mentally ill in order to hire a mentally ill person.
It is funny. I can just imagine someone who is flouridly psychotic working on a construction crew. How many able bodied can he mistakenly injure due to a paranoid delusion?
They will cost you so much money it will BANKRUPT YOU.
It would be much better if all of the Social Security expenditures were used instead to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act as it would lead to a quick and decisive BANKRUPTCY of every American Business on the planet.
So..Really...What do you suggest to do with the Mentally Ill?
We euthanize unwanted animals that cannot care for themselves. Is it much better than have starving people roaming the streets? Isn't it cruel to let people starve and not give them opportunity to earn a wage? (Remember...you'd have to be crazy to hire a crazy...)
What is your "FREE MARKET" solution?
Nobody chooses to be mentally ill. In fact someone would have to be crazy to make that choice. Isn't that apparent?
The Human Brain is an organ. It is like many other organs in the body.
For instance if there is too much potassium chloride in a person's body the Heart undergoes an uncontrolled fibrillation and suffers a Heart Attack. Do you despise people with Heart Disease?
For instance if the Pancreas does not excrete insulin the person dies from Diabetes. Do you despise people with Diabetes?
For instance if the Neurochemicals in the Human Brain are imbalanced then the person experiences delusions, hallucinates, or even becomes severely and clinically depressed...or maybe all of these concurrently.
Sure there are medications which may be affective in alleviating the symptoms. But for SUBSTANTIAL NUMBERS the medications do not yield any alleviation of symptoms.
FURTHERMORE THERE IS NO KNOWN CURE.
Will you hire the homeless man? Most likely they are mentally ill. Did you know that it is because of PEOPLE LIKE YOU is the very reason that I teach them HOW TO MAKE BOMBS, POISON GAS GENERATORS, and other nasties. Just because they are crazy does not mean that they are stupid....because many are not.
And when the collapse happens they will need a fighting chance....since your Government has restricted many of them from Gun Ownership. But you support that restriction from Gun Ownership, right?
I am curious. How much humanity do you have?
Oh..I am just asking you this...How many of the Mentally Ill read Zerohedge? The number may surprise you.
<p>The trick is to not look desperate. I went for two years without working going to doctors trying to diagnose my condition. Basically just general physical breakdown, carpel tunnel and insomnia. With no hope of getting better at 60 I applied for disability. My wife filled out the papers as I can't write (using a foot mouse helps operate my computer). She had a survey to fill out and I guess that put me over. One month later I was approved with 9 months retroactive payments to the date my doctors first diagnosed me.</p> My daughter and her husband where living with me saving up for their own place when her father in law lost his on site fish camp manager job. He was already on Medicaid for heart trouble seemed unable to get SSID. With only his medications paid for his son and I provided any money he needed. His parents and mine had gone to church together so we bonded together watching football. It took three years and one of those lawyers to get him approved with a trip before a judge. He wound up with two years back benefits. He helped his son get a house. Now they live together along with their three miniature dachshunds. For the first time in 43 years my home is kid free.
All this underscores is how much compensation goes to useless paper-pushing fucks...
that which cannot be sustained, won't be.
GODDAMNIT THIS CUNTRY
Hopefully this puts it in the best interest of the greedy lawyers to protect our social security from the billionaire sociopaths and their political minions that are out to destroy it.
There are too many disabled in America. It's all scam.
I have no problem identifying invalids without arms or legs, blind or mentally-ill. But they are a minority of those who are considered disabled.
In many other countries, even blind people try to get professions. I listened to singing of Andrea Bocelli and he looked strange. Then I realized he was blind.
There are too many disabled in America. It's all scam."
There's a cluster of houses a block from me. In the summer, on a nice day, you can hear the party start mid afternoon and run through the evening. All of the people back there are scamming the SS disability. I get to work overtime and not see my family while they enjoy the day with friends.
you'd better keep working. millions on welfare are depending on you. think of your responsibilities. now, get to work, slave!
You think slavery died with Lincoln? Bullshit! Whitey's the new slave, and ghetto nation is master.
i know 'mentally ill' people who are just too damn lazy to work. What happens is, someone introduces them to a social worker. This social worker pulls the strings to get the bennies.
Here's a ten yr. old study. 450,000 Social Workers(mean wage, $50,000).
$22,500,000,000 Billion dollars!
Page 9, main specialty is Mental Illness. The Free Shit Army marches on!
http://workforce.socialworkers.org/studies/fullStudy0806.pdf
social workers make 50 grand now?
That's probable if they have medical education.
No, they get Master's degrees in social work (how to babble on about victim-hood and apply to the government for them to give you other people's money). Although some social workers are good and actually straighten people/situations out. When the government finds out about it they get rid of them. Can't have more people self sufficient, now...
</s>
Lawyers? you mean politicians correct?
The Social Security ‘program’ is a family killer for sure.
If you want to keep granny alive, let her move into your place. Leave me and the others out of it!
Attorneys took in $1.2 billion in such fees in 2013, up from just $425 billion in 2011.
I was told that there wouldn't be any math.
Mostly fucking fat people.
I am seeing more and more sports cars with handicapped stickers on the windshield...
Look, SSDI is nothing more than a money laundering racket. Lawyers and Doctors get boatloads of federal money for their "clients", and they give a portion back to their local congressman's campaign coffers. It's a win-win for the thiever-class.
kill all lawyers. it has to said, at least, once in every lawyer story.
See Shakespeare, above...
Most US politicians are lawyers. They with the help of the lobbyist write the laws.
The politicians supported overseas outsourcing with the solution of putting unemployed Americans on Social Security disability.
Like Federal Reserve debt monetizing eventually the game stops.
Any idea what Obese Diabetic Americans cost? Tax Fat!
The more we spend the OSHA, the greater the disability.