Disability insurance observer: Snow

The LifeHealthPro.com office in Hoboken, N.J. — “my” office — is a couple of blocks away from a Social Security Administration office that handles many Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications.

Perhaps as a result of that, reasonably generous soup kitchens, plentiful supplies of aluminum cans that can traded for cash in New York, and access to bars and liquor stores, Hoboken has a large contingent of panhandlers.

I’ve given a few pennies to one panhandler who has told me that he’s optimistic about the claim he has filed with the Social Security office. I thought I might interview him at some point about the human side of dealing with endless SSDI claim determination delays.

I told him that I hoped things would get better, and that the weather would get better. (It seemed to me that good weather would be useful for a panhandler.)

The panhandler told me, “No, I’m hoping for snow. Then I get work shoveling snow!”