A few years ago, I taught a student whose both parents were on disability, and his sister was also a disabled teenager. Both parents seemed fine physically - they could walk, talk, breathe, laugh, and do pretty much everything a normal human being could do. Maybe they each had back issues and couldn’t lift heavy objects, but I saw no reason why they couldn’t work a desk job or sit on a stool and run the cash register at a grocery store.
Their daughter had issues with being exposed to open air and they claimed she was allergic to something in the school. So she was a homebound student, and the county paid for a teacher to go to her house twice a week to be her personal teacher.
The little brother, whom I taught, was special ed – ADHD – and smelled like garbage every day.
We held a conference once because the parents were claiming that they were homeless and needed additional assistance for supplies and were even asking for clothing.
They ALL had iphones and they drove a newish (at most three years old) Nissan Maxima. The mother was decked out in jewelry (could have been WalMart knockoffs, but still was not hurting for fashion).
How long can we sustain using tax payer money to pay for people who are mooching off of disability?