Disability
 

Is anyone here collecting disability? I finally won my case and I am now retired at the age of 37. I have a question though for anyone who knows about this kind of stuff.

I want to do volunteer work. If I get caught doing it, will they take disability away from me? I can work, but I can't hold a job. After a few months, the fatigue and pain makes working unbearable and I would be fired.

If they'd let you starve for doing charity work, there's a biiig problem. I don't think they could do that. Imo, volunteer work would only help your case - would show you're not taking disability just cause you're lazy.

As DK expressed, it shouldn't ever be an issue. If it is an issue, as my life can attest that non-issues are often interpreted as being issues, then at the very least you can make your case. None of us here can judge how sound your reasoning is about being able to sporadically volunteer but not hold a job, but since you have your disability checks you can say that the government made that judgment for us.

In the odd chance that it's something they watch, you might want to declare your volunteer intentions before you do it. At the very worst you'd end up volunteering clerical shit contrary to your desire to volunteer hoisting massive boulders over your head and throwing them fantastic distances for the public good.

Eh, I guess I should note that the only outstanding contingency in this is whether or not your tax forms would look the exact same with the volunteer service as they would without it.

The thing about being able to volunteer and not work is this. I'll get fired from a normal job for attendance issues and then I won't be able to financially support myself. If I get fired from volunteering while collecting disability, I can still support myself. I'm new to this whole thing and I don't know if taxes are gonna be an issue anymore. I don't think disability is a taxable income. I'll soon find out I guess.

Well, the concern I was addressing was more like if you wanted to declare a whole bunch of deductions based on volunteer work or expenses related to it. From the perspective of the general citizenry, not being able to work for yourself and using that as a motive/opportunity to work for others is the greatest of great things. From the perspective of the Federal Reserve, however, taking money from the government and using the free time it provides to earn the ability to not give any money back to the government is something that might alarm them.

Oh, I see what you're saying. No, I wouldn't declare volunteer work. I just want to give my help to less fortunates. I helped out at the Special Olympics last year and it was a great feeling. I'd like to help out at the zoo and maybe the vet's office.

The thing that worries me is this. It is hard to get on disability if you don't have the energy to fight for it. They try to keep it away from you in every way possible. Likewise, I think they might try to take it away from you if they can find a way. I don't want to lose my chance for having a mediocre life, but I can't take without giving back. I'm afraid that if I mention it to Social Security, they might consider me able to work.

That's why I'm asking here if anyone is on disability or knows about it. Also it makes for a subject that could become explosive here.

Here's a different way to ask the same question I have. Does anyone do volunteer work? If so, do the places you help out need to log you SS# or anything like that? If I'm invisible, Social Security will never find out.

From what I've heard and experienced, volunteer work is just as demanding and difficult as normal work is. Not only that, but they can be even more serious about the work and thus less understanding about people taking time off or being flaky.

Also, I think most people and the government feel that if you're going to collect disability, you're pretty much declaring to the nation that, for whatever reason, it's impossible for you to work. I don't know how the government would react knowing you're doing 4 hours of volunteer work a day (which at a zoo is much more labor intensive than a regular office job) while collecting disability, but I for one would scratch my head and ask, "If you can do this work, why can't you do normal work?" There's a million temp agencies that will put you into a temporary job whenever you needed for as long as you wanted that's really no more difficult or strenuous than posting on the i-mockery forums all day.

I think it is pretty cool that you don't want to just sit around collecting bits of other peoples' salaries that they work for and want to volunteer to make up for it; but the way I see it, if you can do volunteer work, you can do normal work; so you might as well do that. There's more pride in earning your own money anyway right?

When I have had questions concerning issues related to income, deductions, tax-related stuff like that, believe it or not the IRS can answer basic questions. They're not ogres, they can be quite helpful and understanding. Plus, I don't think, based on your description of your situation that this would be a conflict of interest for them. Your main worry would be pissing off the insurance carrier.

I'd wait until May, though. I hear they've quite busy at the moment.

Pandajuice said "but the way I see it, if you can do volunteer work, you can do normal work; so you might as well do that. There's more pride in earning your own money anyway right?"

In response: If you knew why he is on Disability to begin with, or even read his posts in this thread, you'd UNDERSTAND, dipshit.

My mom works at the branch of social security that handles this exact type of situation. I'll let you know later tonight.

My dad is his moms boss. He just told me to tell you to leave well enough alone. Sit on your ass and stay out of trouble. He said.

My mom is my dads brother. He said you should consult the citizens advice bureau :eek

I read his posts and I didn't see anything that specified why exactly he couldn't work a normal job, but could work volunteer jobs; Just ambiguous feelings like "fatigue and pain". It's irrelevant anyway because the main irony of the situation still holds water regardless of why a particular person is on disability (it's fairly easy to assume it's a health matter anyway).

If you read my post and weren't such an angry person (who evidently feels that certain people are entitled to free money), you'd have read my point about volunteer work being every bit, if not more, strenuous and serious than paying gigs. Trust me, I've done volunteer work and most of it is not for flaky people, or for legitimately disabled people. Just like any job, volunteer or not, the head honchos don't want people they can't rely on.

My point again was that if he is legitimately disabled, he shouldn't worry about or try to make up for it doing volunteer work, because if he can't do a normal job for more than a couple months, he probably won't be able to hold down a volunteer job either. And if he can do volunteer work, he should be able to do normal work. They're all jobs whether they pay or not.

IT'S PRETTY EASY TO UNDERSTAND, PANDAJUICE

FOR EXAMPLE,
My mom couldn't hold a job because she spent a lot of time in hospitals, in her later years. She could still work, volunteer, clean house, etc. But because of attendance issues, she wouldn't be able to hold a real/steady job. BUT AS FOR VOLUNTEERING, IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU QUIT/GET FIRED, AS YOU DON'T RELY ON THEM FOR MONEY.

I SEE WOT U DID THAR!

MY POSTS ARE EASY TO UNDERSTAND TOO (well at least by anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together that is).

I'll try to make it as clear as possible without bringing my intellect down to such a level where I might crap myself. Please try to follow along.

I get that he wouldn't be able to work enough hours at a steady job to support himself. I also get that you people think that just because it's volunteer work and there's no pay involved, that they don't care about attendance issues.

My plain point that I've had to illustrate three times now is simply this:
If he is unable to hold down a paying job because of attendance issues, then he will be unable to hold down a volunteer job as well. You can get fired from volunteer jobs.

If he can magically hold down a regular volunteer job, then there isn't any problem doing a normal job as long as the employeer is made aware that health problems might force him to take some days off (believe it or not, some companies are ok with that if there are legitimate medical reasons; ever heard of doctor's notes?).

I'm not trying to be an asshole (though I probably should be judging by the asinine replies this thread has gotten) and I never intended to be in my first post. My goal was simply to make it clear and frank to Tadao that a volunteer job is the same as a normal job, just with no pay. They appreciate hard work and regular attendance as well; especially anything involving kids.

liquidstatik: It might be more useful by the way if you turned Tadao onto the same companies your mom volunteered for if they really don't mind attendance issues, instead of using it to discredit me. Volunteering is usually a pain in the ass because it's like having a second job (attendance committments and all) that you don't get paid for. That's why the majority of volunteer workers are old people who are living off pensions with nothing else to do, and college students who are trying to make their transcripts look better for med/law school.

YES BUT IF HE GETS FIRED HE'S NOT GOING TO LOSE HIS HOUSE AS HE'S ON DISABILITY YOU COCK SUCK

THEREFOR YOU'RE DUMB AND SHUT UP

Well, the problem we have in properly assimilating your posts is that no matter how coherent or, dare I say, articulate the expression of ideas is, it really doesn't matter if the idea being presented is inaccurate and totally fucking stupid.

Activism is a large and thriving movement, although it would be fantastic if it were ever larger and more thriving. As such, there are many methods by which time can be volunteered without the same kind of commitment as a job. Typically, when you call up an organization to ask when would be a good time to come in and give a few hours, they will not tell you that they only accept unpaid work in 40 hour/week increments with normal shift blocks. Often, they'd be happy to take one hour a week at a mutually convenient time frame, possibly on a walk-in basis in some of the more chaotic and eccentric charities.

So, yeah, the whole I-Mockery cultural sea change at hand kind of keeps me from calling you a total fucking moron in the same fashion as by which I-Mockery history was forged over many years. It's just hard NOT to insinuate as much by virtue of your idiotic complaints about charitable work that reflect a gross misunderstanding of every aspect of the conversation.

Yeah, what he said!

The point is that he gets tired quickly because of health issues, so he simply can't work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, every week. But maybe he can work 25 hours one week, 15 the next, or whatever works for him. And if he has an accident that keeps him off his feet for let's say, 2 weeks, it won't be a problem, whereas if he had a normal job, he'd either be fired, lose 2 weeks of his vacation or just fired.

Finally some articulate and sensible counter-arguements. I thought I'd be here all night baiting you guys until someone bit. Sometimes I find it invorgorating to argue and debate a point I don't necessarily agree with just to see if I can.

I absolutely agree with what you (Sethomas and Fat_Hippo) said and I applaud Tadao for choosing to volunteer his time instead of just resting on the "disability laurels". The best advice I'd give was what was already given: call the Department of Labor and ask if volunteering somehow interferes with your disability award and choose something that won't be very physically demanding.

hahahhahah

I would be upfront with the place I volunteer for and let them know that I have attendance issues and they can figure out if they could use my free work or not. It's really quite simple, they say yes or no.

Pandjuice, if you care to look into it, I have Ankylosing Spondylitis. It is very weird. The pain goes away when I work. Why can't I hold a job? Because I can't sleep, that is when the pain comes in. That is why I have attendence issues.

Like I said, they can decide if they want my help or not.