THE NEW LOWER BACK PAIN?
I, for one, am suspicious. Anybody, whose Anybody seems to be claiming and receiving disability pensions based on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
There is the Military of course - but now Fire Fighters, Police, Para Meds, Nurses and others are getting in on the action.
And don't doubt that there is real money to be had.
The US Military is paying out $3,000 per month tax free for PTSD Sufferers. And the diagnosis is usually based solely upon the claimant's assertion that he or she suffers from it.
Like yesterday, when the lower back pain scam was so prominent.
But more and more reports suggest that fraud is a big part of the surge in cases.
And boy have they surged.
In 1990, the US Military had but 34,000 PTSD cases. In 2013 that number had climbed to 650,000 ... or by 20 times.
And by this time of course their big wars were well behind them - WWI, WWII and Vietnam.
I don't for one moment think that all or even the majority of these cases are bogus but it does cause you to reflect on why the numbers have risen so high so fast over the last decade or two.
There can be three reasons for this amazing growth:
a) ptsd is a disease of epidemic proportions; or
b) there is $ to be had and it is very difficult to prove fraud; or
c) we in the West are becoming nations of wimps.
I discount choice a) out of hand, re b) there certainly has to be a large amount of fraud involved, and with c) sadly there is also lots of evidence that more and more of us have become or are becoming Wussies.
That said, I am not suggesting that we go back to the days during World War One when PTSD Suffers - called Shell Shock then - were simply put up against a wall and shot.
But it does appear something - albeit much less drastic - should be done to stem the tide.
And now, like I say - others are climbing on board. All have something in common re these newbies - they are all government employees and have the best salaries, benefits and working conditions to boot. But another 3 grand - tax free $, no doubt comes in handy.
I remember once a veteran coming to me to say he had just been awarded a pension for something or other - and I said good for you...until -
He told me he had entered the hearing room with a cane and bent over - but I said to him I did not know you needed a cane - I did know that he walked straight and tall - and he replied he did not but he thought it was guaranteed to get him sympathy from the panel.
And it looks like it did.
But then there was my father who served in Italy and Holland in tanks - he was the gunner and in post war life he was hard of hearing - surprise.
I told dad why don't you apply for a hearing pension and he responded saying there is nothing wrong with my hearing. I was shouting at him at the time.
A hearing specialist concluded dad did indeed have hearing loss caused by Loud Noise and since he worked all his civilian life at a desk - it did not seem likely the loud noise damage was caused by his typewriter.
He got his small pension.
So I am in favour of the truly disabled qualifying for legitimate pensions - even for fire fighters, cops and nurses but for heavens sake, let's be more vigilante in weeding out the chaff from the wheat.
At the very least - tax these PTSD Pensions.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
