Thank you, Anna Holmes. I'm glad to see in the comments people understand that, as a psychologist friend of mine testified in court, "This trucker did not suddenly one day decided to forgo his $80,000 a year job to take disability so he could get $15,000 a year!"

I conducted about 2000 disability evaluations. To my surprise, almost everyone lied (wait for it) - they almost all DENIED the level of disability they actually had, out of shame and embarrassment.

I did these evaluations in a very conservative part of the US, so many felt it was wrong to 'take from the government." When I told them they had (most of them, not those on SSI) contributed to social security their whole working life, and were simply receiving the benefits of this insurance policy that had contributed to, they generally felt better about it.

Because disability judges often were suspicious (the level of denial is much higher in the Southeast than any other part of the country) I carefully researched malingering (faking) and though there is some in workers compensation and other government programs, nobody has been able to find a malingering rate more than 2-3% for disability (so yes, it does happen, but VERY VERY rarely).

Finally, take Anna's observations and those of a disability examiner in the comments to heart - you do have about a 66-70% chance of being turned down (even if you are in a wheel chair and have had a stroke that leaves you barely able to speak, as occurred with one of my patients) when you first apply to the state. But if you get a good lawyer (it's free at first; no payment until you win, and that is taken from the SS money, not from your own pocket), you have very good odds - assuming you qualify - of receiving disability compensation.

Finally, even though you may win at the court level, someone should do something about the rank prejudice and bias among disability examiners. A paralegal at one of the firms I worked out had been a supervisor of disability examiners for 8 years.

He said they learned quickly - if you are a disability examiner and accept someone's application for disability, you will be hounded and harassed for weeks to provide evidence; if you deny someone, you'll be left alone. They quickly figure out their life will be much easier if they just deny most people.

And shame on some of my fellow psychologists who work mostly for the state. I've seen reports that deliberately (yes, I've checked it out) misinterpret test results in order to support a denial, because that way they get more referrals from the disability examiners.

Shame!

Thank you Anna for this excellent article.