“One” Thing You Need to Know about Federal Disability Benefits

Tips from applicants, advocates, spoonies, and more

If you’re new to this topic, here’s a little spoiler: The US Social Security Administration disability program is demeaning, demoralizing, dehumanizing, and perverse. I recently edited a book that covers many of the problems with Social Security Disability, written by my husband, who worked for SSA for over 10 years. This article is part of a series of things I dove into after my part of the book (editing) was done — my added perspective on a crumbling, inefficient, and intentionally impossible system.

There are a few key things I wish people knew about the SSA disability system. Here are the main ones:

• The SSA disability system is not made for you to easily access benefits. It’s intentionally designed to keep you from receiving them.
• The SSA disability process is awful. It’s meant to be. I have two family members who applied for disability. One was approved quickly, one is still fighting with SSA several years later. It was a challenging, demoralizing process for both of them.
• People may try to shame you for needing benefits. Or maybe, you’ll feel internal shame based on social commentary or childhood lessons about worthiness. These benefits are here for a reason. If you can successfully get them — you should know that you above and beyond need them, since many people who DO need them and SHOULD receive benefits, don’t…