RE: Chronic Disability

[Ernest Mashler <ernest1@cwo.com>]

Means test for tax purposes is a genuine hardship as well.  For
many, the onset of chronic disabilty can be sudden ( accident,
complications of surgery, certain illneses ) and is often initially
disputed, requiring lengthy appeals and often a hearing.  These
procedures can take several years, and often lead to terrible
financial problems for the family, in addition to the obvious ones,
regardless of income and despite good prior planning.  A sudden
drop by half or more in monthly income due to the loss of a wage
earner, compounded by the additional costs of living created by
the disability and the lengthy process of obtaining benefits can
lead to financial disaster for the best prepared families.  On top
of this, the means test is arbitrary, with those setting the rules
seeming to have little understanding of cost of living in the
working middle class, or are we "rich" at $45,000 per year, especially
when we may have sold our house and are battling to pay off debts
incurred while trying to keep going after a medical disaster,
compounded by loss of income, increased work load on the healthy
family member(s) and increased costs, and debt, caused by the
disabling condition itself.

Politically, the reform of this area of taxing Social Security
could obviously be of benefit to whoever moved it along.