10MileHike

What is the point in not letting people on SSDI have savings accounts or any asset?

Incorrect. SSDI is for people with a work history, who have paid into the SS system and have work credits. They are not limited by assets. They have paid into the fund by working. You are talking about SSI

It absolutely can be done without an attorney at the early stages. In fact, attorneys really don’t do anything of substance until and unless the claim reaches the level of a Hearing in front of an administrative law judge.

Thanks for setting the record straight. I don't know how many times I have had to explain this on various subs here.

I’m confused as to people who are obliviously disabled are being denied?

It depends on how that "obvious" disability affects your ability to perform a job in the economy. Being in a wheelchair, for instance, does not automatically make someone unable to work.

People can still screw up their claim if they fill out the activities of daily living incorrectly, normally by severely overestimating what they can actually do

My thoughts on the narrative part: There IS no lawyer who can write out what your morning is like, how you brush your teeth and get ready for your day. That is very personal. SS wants people to be honest-----just "tell it like it is" but FACTUALLY. This is where I think a lot of people fail. They think they have to have some fancy legal knowledge, or they underestimate or overestimate what they can and can't do......or they leave out the facts by describing only their emotional responses to tasks. The agent who is assigned your case has read thousands of these. They can separate "lawyer-speak" from genuine human narratives. This is why I think it often is preferable for the applicant to do their initial applications on their own. Use honest language.

But they can also over-somatize, too when writing their narrative. I have also explained to people about the pain scale. If you go to doctor, under your own steam, walk in and tell them you have 9-10 level pain, they are instantly going to see over-somatizing. Because I have never (never!) seen anyone at level 10 pain who wasn't partially comatose or delerious and would already most likely be receiving morphine. That's end stage bone cancer territory, or major traumatic accident. And level 9, most likely on the floor, having trouble getting a sane train of thought across, trouble speaking in full sentences, probably unable to converse, and possibly vomitting from the pain. (colon obstruction, major kidney stone stuck somewhere and becoming toxic).

Yet every time I write this in some of the subs I just get downvoted or told I'm not compassionate or something? So they keep telling everyone they are at 9-10......then the next posts are about how doctors gaslight them.........well then don't use hyperbole when describing your pain.

Lottery spend has gone way up in the last couple of years.

Unfortunately, real wages have barely budged in decades; salaries have gone up but purchasing power has not, except for the highest paid tier of workers . Now, with recent inflationary effects, 66% of workers say inflation has outpaced any salary gains they've made.

They buy lottery tickets hoping that there is some way out, despite that it requires a struck-by-lightning-like luck to actually win anything.

That $53 a month (based on that $640 figure) they are spending on lottery tickets is a drop in the bucket (cheaper than a tank fillup, or even a normal utility bill) when they compare it to continually live at the level they do presently.

I kinda can't blame them for gambling, and for some, it's also an "entertainment expense" (gambling on lottery tickets, horse races, casinos) .........$53 a month for people who don't eat out in restaurants, don't go on expensive vacations, don't go to movie theatres.......$53 is nothing, really, if you consider that can be viewed as their "entertainment budget.."

$53 is $1.76 per day. Can you even buy a cup of coffee for that, daily? And the cup of coffee isn't creating the outside chance that you might actually win some money.
I mean, some people stop at Starbucks on way to work, it works out to more like $120 a month, minimum, if you don't tip, for 5 business days a week.