Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k

Re:Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k by jnovek on Friday May 20, 2022 @06:56PM (#31453581)

Of course; I’m sure that, if it were easy enough, people would commit social security fraud.

I know this is a subjective statement, but as I go through this process it just feels way, way, way over the top.

We could probably do with a lot less. We could probably make the process kinder. The experience is so humiliating and we do it to people who are already suffering.

Edit: Imagine, hypothetically, that the process were twice as kind but bumped the fraud rate to 1.5%. I would be totally OK with that. Maybe it’s worth spending a little extra public money to treat people with dignity.

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Re:Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k by NovemberWhiskey on Friday May 20, 2022 @07:04PM (#31453646)

I apologize; it was a little glib. I'm sure that the way it works isn't Pareto optimal; and there is clearly a problem in the U.S. of using shaming as a tool to discourage consumption of means-tested benefits, as opposed to focusing on actual good governance.

I wish you the best of luck.

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Re:Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k by jnovek on Friday May 20, 2022 @08:13PM (#31454108)

No worries! You’re not out of line for being concerned about this stuff.

It’s like a lot of policy stuff: our congress critters have a very black-and-white approach to a problem that only comes in shades of gray.

And, thank you. I have a good support system these days and I think everything will eventually be OK. There’s just an unspecified amount of stupid stuff between here and there. :-)

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Re:Policy punishes disabled people who save more than $2k by cjbgkagh on Friday May 20, 2022 @11:27PM (#31455013)

Once a little fraud is possible an industry is set up to exploit it until it becomes dominated by fraud.

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