Who wrote about disability benefits as our safety net

October 3, 2022 2:54 PM

Looking for a specific article and also general reading on related topics: The specific article I believe was a longer feature in the Washington Post (maybe???) Maybe 5 to 10 years ago(??) about a state (can't remember which state, maybe the states in general) funding people's Social Security disability application processes - to save themselves money on state welfare benefits, and I believe it touched on the social implication on 'incentivizing' (requiring??) people to label themselves as disabled in order to receive money required to live on? I remember something about people with chronic pain featuring heavily...

In general, anything on the way disability as a social construction is impacted by our shitty welfare state is what I'd like to read about, along with this half-remembered article.

posted by latkes to Law & Government (5 answers total)

I remember the article you’re talking about. I don’t remember any searchable details, alas, but Eli Saslow is a Post reporter who has done a lot of work on this topic, and searching through his archive would probably get you some interesting stuff, if not the actual article. Maybe search by author on longform.org, too.
posted by kevinbelt at 3:07 PM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I recall this reporting and have a gut feeling it was AL or MS.

Perhaps there was a This American Life on it? I seem to remember listening to something about it as well.
posted by chiefthe at 3:49 PM on October 3, 2022

Was it this piece, or this one (archived)? I believe it was written by a MeFi member and/or discussed on metafilter back in the day.
posted by Wavelet at 4:47 PM on October 3, 2022

Best answer: I believe you are looking for this.
posted by HotToddy at 5:16 PM on October 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: HotToddy that is the series I was thinking of. And thanks all for the additional links and leads.
posted by latkes at 8:39 PM on October 3, 2022