I went through all this to get my SSI and Social Security disability checks...
By nonew3
@nonew3 (1941)
United States
July 15, 2007 2:02pm CST
To prove that I was unable to work, and to get my SSI and Social Security disability checks, I had to go through one month at a sheltered workshop for the moderately to severely mentally challenged.
There I was treated like I could hardly even count to ten. This was in the beginning to mid-1990's although I forget the exact year.
I am definitely far from being moderately to severely low in IQ, as I had graduated from high school and had finished some college prior to this experience, but the very notion that I can count quite well seemed to completely escape the minds of the supervisors who were over me.
Yet, when I was given my first job assignment at that facility, I was asked if I could count to ten. I was utterly dumbfounded when I was asked that question, and so all I could do was nod yes.
My first task was to sort fishing licenses by the last two numbers, on a tic-tac-toe-like grid. 01 went in the 01 box. 07 went in the 07 box. 04 went in the 04 box. 09 went in the 09 box. And so on, so forth, for hours at a time. This task did not exactly stretch the limits of my mathematical capabilities, not even by a long shot.
(Where does 05 go? I know! I know! I know! Don't tell me! 08, right? LOL)
I was also made to cut thick telephone wire with big heavy-duty cutting equipment without gloves since I had not brought my own, and sort loads of heavy, thick telephone wire and put them into wooden bins based on their size.
As some of you know, I have a VERY painful back, yet every time I would scream and cry in excruciating pain from being made to cut, sort, carry, and toss the loads of telephone wires on and on for hours at a time, I was put into a small room to cry it out, and then threatened with not getting my disability checks. I was told again and again how I have to be obedient.
I was not being disobedient! I was being in very severe pain!
I got 25 cents an hour for all this. I was paid based on a quota that was deemed to be "minimum wage." No matter how hard I worked, I could never come anywhere remotely close to "minimum wage" standards.
And, I was made to do the same two tasks of sorting fishing licenses, and cutting and sorting telephone wire, for the entire month.
Many of my co-workers really could not count to ten, and some of them could not feed, dress, or bathe themselves. I was treated like I was one of them.
Has anyone else here gone through anything at all like this to get governmental disability checks?
1 response
@sunkissed (4330)
• United States
15 Jul 07
No I did not.I am on social security disability and I have been disabled since 1986.I too am disabled because of a very bad back and several other medcal problems. However I can not do any sort of work, so i did not have to go through the sheltered workshop.I did however have to go see a phyciatryst and had to do some very strange things.Getting social security is a very long drawn out process. It took me 7 years to get mine started.It is terrable all the things that they put you through to get the little money that you worked for.
@nonew3 (1941)
• United States
15 Jul 07
I don't think that anyone at that time realized just how bad my back really is.
And, it never seemed to occur to the supervisors that my cries and screams in agony were not my being belligerent, but my being in terrible pain.
I also had to see a psychiatrist for an IQ test, psychiatric tests, and whatnot. I still have to go in every 4 years or so to re-test. The latest tests showed that I am far more physically disabled than I am mentally disabled.
I am lucky in that it only took me 6 months to get on social security disability.
But, still, I had to go through heck and a half to get on it.
Recently I tried to file a complaint against the sheltered workshop, after I realized that some of their treatment of me were abusive and in violation of some rules, but to no avail because I had far exceeded the statute of limitations.
And, so, I am having to go online with my story instead.
I remember what REALLY went on at that sheltered workshop even though they thought I was stupid or something. Perhaps they thought that I wouldn't remember a single bit of it and would tell no one.
All I can hope and pray is that others who are having to go through places like that aren't being treated the same or worse.
I wouldn't treat a dog the way they treated me there.
Those who are moderately or severely mentally challenged are still people, and deserve to be respectfully treated as such, with safety goggles, thick and heavy work gloves, and other safety gear readily available and readily distributed when needed. I heard again and again that so-and-so lost fingers and hands in the heavy chopping equipment. Those who did have gloves, often had gloves with huge, gaping holes in them.
And, for goodness sakes, don't put a normal-IQ person through such demeaning and degrading work for hours on end, and don't put someone with severe back pain through such physically demanding work so as to leave the person screaming and doubled over in pain!
Those with disabilities are PEOPLE!
Couldn't they find SOMETHING at least SOMEWHAT close to my mental and physical abilities?
I talked with a disability lawyer about this briefly a week or two ago, and now I wonder why I was made to go through that place at all. I think it was a mistake. Someone did a boo-boo.


