This could probably have gone in general questions, except that taking that route wouldn’t allow me the opportunity to call the subject of my rant a fucking lazy, lying, piece of shit. Still, I am hoping that some of my questions can be answered, even in the pit.
A friend of a friend is receiving disability due to alleged CFS. This annoys me to no end because it is quite obvious that he/she has fooled the system and is receiving money that is not due to them. This person is quite intelligent and most likely did a bunch of research on the disease, learning how to mimic and/or describe their symptoms in a way that was believable to their doctor.
The problem is that this person is in real life incredibly active and proudly lets everyone know about all of their activities in their live journal. Even the posting times seem to be evidence of there being no CFS. The person will post at 3am about events that occurred throughout the day, yet the person never seemed to have a need for rest and is still quite active at all hours of the morning. This isn’t an “every once in a while” occurance. It is almost daily. This person is somehow able to handle a full courseload at college, have a busy social life, and spend all hours of the night writing about it on the internet. I would love to know where exactly the chronic fatigue part comes in. Yes, they are probably a bit tired. I would be too if I kept that schedule. But since when is someone eligible for benefits for being tired?
I have no problem with people getting disability who deserve it and I am in no way trying to suggest that CFS isn’t real or that it’s sufferers shouldn’t be eligible for disability. But it really annoys me when anyone receives benefits that they don’t deserve, thereby robbing the system. It annoys me when I see people who are perfectly able to work, find a loophole so that they don’t have to. Or am I just really misunderstanding CFS? Is it possible for someone to have CFS to the extent that they are eligible for benefits and yet be able to put in 16 hour days?
Which brings me to my main question. Is there a route, preferrably anonymous, that I could take to report this person for disability fraud? I’m not saying that I necessarily want to, but it is tempting when they are bragging about their fortune and the fact that they no longer have to work all the time. Would the state take the allegations seriously and investigate or would I just be wasting my time?
California’s Employment Development Department administers disability payments.
From the site:
Individuals who have information that someone is defrauding one of EDD’s programs, such as Unemployment Insurance, State Disability Insurance, or Tax, should call the Fraud Tip Hot Line at:
1-800-229-6297
The Department considers the information confidential and will protect the identity of the person reporting fraud.
A friend of mine used to work for a Private Investigator the worked disability cases. I can’t tell you how to report him/her, but I can tell you that insurance companies do send out people to investigate.
He took video of people with bad backs playing softball. Had some guy tell him a long story on tape about exactly how he had scammed workman’s comp. Some very funny stories about the scams people had going and how they got caught.
I think if you could figure out who is paying the claim, that yes, they would take the allegations seriously.
On a related note, I once worked for a company that needed me because one of their analysts was out on paid leave. She had filed a (IMO and that of her coworkers, baseless) sexual harrassment claim with the company - then all sorts of related workman comp claims about dealing with the stress. So stressed she couldn’t get another job, but so unstressed that she had plenty of time and energy to pursue her hobbies. She managed to drag it out for about nine months before her attorney figured out the scam she was running and dumped her. She ended up getting “laid off” (and probably paid off) by the company in question - but its a small IT community and I really doubt she’s managed to get herself re-employed under the current economic circumstances.
My mother’s next door neighbor has been getting disability for years becase of “agorophobia and sudden and persistant anxiety attacks.”
She makes me so mad, because there are people out there who actually have these problems, but she fakes it so that she can have free money to live on and not have to actually work for a living.
This woman set off alarm bells with me immediately - she seemed to be parroting back symptoms, never seemed to have a problem with going to the store, or having a picnic with her kid. It was only when she was supposed to make it to an appointment or when she wanted to get out of doing something that she’d say “Oh, I’m having a panic attack. My heart is racing. I’m going to go lay down! I can’t deal with this!”
Grrr. My mother was totally sympathetic. “It’s terrible that she has such a debilitating illness, she has a college degree and can’t work!”
How exactly do they procure these videos? I’m currently awaiting disability payments myself, and I’m feeling paranoid. I have seen a lot of strange trucks parked in front of my house lately… [shudder]. Not that I’m pulling anything. If they can see in my windows, they’re going to see nothing but a fat girl wearing a nightgown and sitting in a wheelchair, for hours and hours. And hours. Hours. Exciting, eh?
Depends on what kind of disab.
If Social Security, you can just call the toll free number.
I’m sure any other governmental or private disab system would welcome such info.
CFS/Epstein Barre/fibromyalgia/environmental sensitivity syndrome - just the newest flavors of the month. 100 years ago they would have been diagnosed with hysteria. 20 years ago maybe they would have been diagnosed as depressed.
And for kids it is ODD and asthma all the way to the bank.
One of the symptoms of CFS can be insomnia. Which could explain the posting at all hours thingy.
If it were me, I would have to feel real certain I was absolutely right about someone else before reporting them. CFS is one of those conditions where some people with it can continue ordinary life at great cost of energy. If you saw my partner doing a school workshop you’d think fraud possibly. But you don’t see the cost of the energy spent. He’ll come home and be exhausted for days after a few hours of work.
ODD is a beaut isn’t Dinsdale. I think it can exist but I think it’s far far rarer than the number of dx’es would suggest. My kid got that label once. It’s wrong, he isn’t.
I don’t know this woman, obviously, but I do suffer from panic disorder and to a small extent, agoraphobia. Going to the store isn’t hard for me. Doing things with my boyfriend or my family isn’t hard for me. However, going into a stressful situation can easily set off a panic attack or freak me out sufficiently into cancelling - I’ve done it many times. I’ve had plans to go out with friends and because it was a scary social situation, I’ve had a panic attack and had to cancel at the last minute. I’m not saying she’s right, but it very much depends on the situation. My disorders (including depression) have never caused me to go on disability and I hope they never do; however, I would probably be a lot like this woman and able to do some things, but not others. And that would probably cause people to judge me unfairly - believe me, even without having been on disability, I’ve been judged for it. I’m just saying that when it comes to these types of disorders, there’s more than meets the eye sometimes.
As far as physical ailments, I think those are much easier to assess.
Hidden cameras. He’d show up at the ballfield with a gym bag with a little teeny tiny camera in it.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. We are talking about guys with “back problems” who would play softball. People with such “severe pain” they couldn’t go to work, but could spend all day on a boat fishing day after day. Not people who are housebound and in wheelchairs.
I hate it when people fake things to get disability, because it makes it so much harder to be believed when you do have one of those disorders.
I had a lot of trouble with a knee problem called Osgood-Schlatter Disease when I was in my teens. One day I was sitting in the office (I was working as an office helper that semester) talking with one of the administrative people, and I mentioned my knee problem. She seemed very dubious, which surprised me, so I pulled up my pants leg and showed her the massive lump below my knee that’s characteristic of OSD.
She was startled that I actually did have it. Turns out one of the local doctors was in the habit of “diagnosing” kids with OSD whenever they didn’t want to be in PE. :mad:
First of all, what is ODD? Do you mean OCD?
And also, I may be wrong, but isn’t “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” the same thing as “Mononucleosis”? If so, isn’t there a difinitive blood test one can take that will tell if the disease is in the system?
Two months ago, I was in a car accident-- rear ended at a stop light and crushed between two trucks twice my size. My car was crumpled like a tin can, and the force of my body slamming back into my seatback behind me broke the seat. Miraculously, I walked away with a minor head injury, minor whiplash, and a very bad back sprain.
A back sprain is a slow heaing monster, and from the way people treat me I’m starting to wish I’d broken a leg instead. I know it’s because of the many many many fraud claims that I get rolled eyes from co-workers when I need help carrying office supplies in from my car. (I returned to work two weeks after the accident, and back then I couldn’t even tie my own shoes). I feel like some kind of criminal because I have a back injury – and the funny thing is, I never even collected disability. Back injuries are easy to fake, so people tend to assume I’m just trying to defraud the government. It really freakin’ sucks.
Wow, I could almost be your poster child here… I have both panic disorder with agoraphobia, and Epstein Barr/CFS! The EB/CFS is the least of my problems; if I get sick, I’m sick for longer than a person who doesn’t carry the EB virus, and if I let myself get too run down I crash and burn, that’s all. It doesn’t impact my life at all other than that. I’ve never been on disability for either (though I was out of work for 4 months due to the PD/agoraphobia, without pay) so I guess I make the cut.
I do understand your rant though–people fucking the system make the stigma of non-visible or “trendy” disorders/disabilities that much worse.
I have a severe back problem, several in fact. Sure, I can go get my groceries but I will be flat on the floor for 24 hours afterwards doped up on pain killers. As my doc says, “there is lots of stuff you shouldn’t do but will need to anyway”. I really hope I am never videoed when doing one of those *need to * things. Surprise surprise, the pittance the government pay me to live on does not stretch to cleaning personnel or home delivery as much as I love that. Until I get given my monkey butler I *need to *do my own housekeeping. I do not do it often or particularly well but I do need to do it.
I have no doubt there are people around who only see me doing the stuff that needs to be done who assume I am really faking. There is a difference between being unable to do something and shouldn’t do something because the cost will be too high.
Is it possible that your aquaintance is paying for all this activity somewhere along the line and she/he feels that it is worth it anyway? Not to say there are not fakers about but I question whether you know enough to bring in authorities in this case.
My former occupation was in mental health and the number of folks with mental illness who have their right to benefits questioned as they are not demonstrating any particular symptomology to other people at that moment is heartbreaking. The stress of the review process can be really dangerous and you may also be taking away the only safety net between them and homelessness. Please be sure.
I would love to bitch-slap ALL the fakers out there who make it so much harder for us to get our medically justifiable payments. I really have to wonder just how far these people have to go in their fakery; it’s a nightmare getting disability if you qualify for it, let alone if you really don’t!
At least my problems are pretty obvious on sight, or I’m afraid I’d be screwed.
It’s always frustrating when people who don’t need benefits get them, and people who do can’t. I have a close friend who really suffers from fibromyalgia – she’s not a faker, it’s basically destroyed her life and has tons and tons of medical documentation to support it – and yet has been denied disability for three years now. She’s going to a hearing for it next month; I hope she can finally get it. I hate to see herself pushing herself so hard she ends up in agony from it.
If you’re really convinced this person is faking it, you can report it. But please do be certain first. Sometimes disabilities really aren’t visible, as Obsidian and thylacine have pointed out.
I suspect most of the fraud cases are workers comp cases, too; that’s where those “back injuries” come from. I was a court reporter in a Social Security hearing some years back when the appellant came in hobbling with his cane, but the attorney for the government later told me he had video of the guy out doing heavy yardwork with no problems. It was a highly questionable industrial injury that he didn’t even report for three days that caused it. Riiiiight.
Hey, what about the flip side, those individuals who either HAVE disabilities and use the AWDA to get shit, or don’t have a valid disability and try to use the AWDA?
There’s this jackass in town named Steve F (I want to put out the last name, but ain’t that against the rules?) who’s been trying to get on the goddamn city police force. He’s got some kind of shaking palsey, I don’t know what kind. He’s weak. He can’t run. He’s stupid (I mean stupid in a literal barely made it past the 12th grade stupid.) And he’s suing the city for discrimination, stating that he is being denied a government post because of his disability. Legit, he’s got the shakes. BUT I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO BACK YOUR CRIPPLE ASS UP IF YOU CAN’T HIT A GODDAMNED TARGET BECAUSE YOU’RE SHAKING AND CAN’T HOLD YOUR SIDEARM STRAIGHT!!! !!! !!!
On the other hand, there’s this little goddamned punk who goes to school with my neice. Kid’s asthmatic. He attempted to sue the school for putting him into PE. Mind you, this is middle school. He’s 12. I remember my middle school PE consisted of dodgeball and basketball and other such activities. Yet, I’ve seen him at my town’s paintball field (where I ref every weekend.) He sure has a helluva run on the break and can seem to slide into any bunker he wants to. But no, he’s disabled!
Hubby’s best friend’s wife gets SSI because she’s allergic to the sun. Yeah! That would explain her spending five hours in the sun, wearing short shorts and a tank top, at the company picnic.
I’ve been eligible for SSI for the last three years due to heart failure. I don’t ask for it because I can still sit at my desk and work. When the time comes that I can’t then I’ll file for SSI, until then I will support myself. And her apparently.