Reply #155: one more unfortunate turn to the story...

[dysfunctional press]

when i finally got my finding of disability- i went in to have my benefits chat with the SS officer...and it turned out that i had been screwed by one of the companies i had worked for in my 20's('national pre-cast' -i was a union laborer on an pre-cast concrete erection crew with union ironworkers). they had never paid into fica the money that they had deducted from my checks over a two-year period(including an almost 4-month stretch of six 12 hour days-per-week on a soldier field reconstruction project in chicago). overall it amounted to over 12% of my 'lifetime' wages that my benefit amount was/is based on. and because the company was by then long gone and bankrupt- i was informed by the SS officer that i would receive no credit for the non-payments, and that i had no recourse in the matter- i.e. i was/am shit outta luck, and my monthly check would be/is that much lower as a result.

also- by the time i DID get a proper diagnosis- i had already left the union and the trades, so i had no pension or disability coming from them. i finally gave it up due to pain from the non-disabling condition i had been mis-diagnosed with- had i known what i actually had at the time- i would have stayed in the union and had a MUCH better disability pension.

live and learn...:shrug: