At Morningside we work mostly with the 15% – that is the majority of those we serve were born with or their disability occurred before age 18 verses acquiring it through trauma, disease, etc. at a later age. So when I read or see reports that show someone “claiming” to be disabled to work the system it annoys me. No it does more than merely annoy me it totally ticks me off.

Twice in the past month, I have either read or viewed video of individuals taking advantage of the system, claiming they have a disability and can’t do anything to gain a higher pension or not work and live off whatever they fraudulently gained through insurance claims or suing the government. I actually read that in one municipality back east over 30 percent of employees getting ready to retire claim to be disabled to garner a bigger retirement check. Apparently the workgroup that is the biggest abuser are the fireman which leads me to the second story I saw.

I regularly peruse online newspapers and recently clicked on a video of a “disabled” fireman who had won a huge settlement with a municipality claiming to be severely injured on the job and was filmed doing some pretty amazing physical things unbeknownst to him by a hidden camera.

What’s with firemen and civil employees and claiming disability? What is in their subculture that permits this type of behavior is acceptable and is an appropriate thing to do? If we want to reform government why don’t we start here?

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CEO Viewpoint is published by Jim Larson, CEO Morningside

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