There has been a lot of speculation these past few pages about medical fraud, disability, healthcare, and unemployment and due to this being my speciality area, I am going to try to help clear up some of the questions and such that I have seen. Maybe my social work degree wasn't completely useless?
Okay, so as far as disability goes, I had always been the first to oppose Lou qualifying. I have always been adamant that he didn't receive help, but as time as gone on and several financial decisions have been made around the same time, I feel as if my opinion has solidified. At this point in time, I absolutely believe Lou is receiving disability for a mental disorder. There are two types of Disability, and Lou hasn't worked enough in the American System to qualify for SSDI, which is based on work credits. Earlier in the thread I had these terms switched, but my information was still correct. SSI is based more on the people who become disabled and cannot work anymore, and are low income and so they need help. Lou had never presented any physical limitations, being able bodied albeit rotund. So I had always been against him having SSI. I had also assumed that if he WAS on disability, his mother would expect some form of payment and we would hear about it all the time from Lou's whining.
However, watching Mama Gags with the evolution of this thread, she is his biggest enabler in life. And I know you can receive disability for many mental disorders. I can only imagine how easy it was for him to qualify, even through a screen we can all tell how fucking insane in the membrane he is. He bashed a girl through a locker and out of all of Lou's lies, I can believe that one. He also has an arrest record, and that makes it even easier for a psychologist to determine that he has severe mental issues. The average payment for someone receiving disability based on cognitive impairment is around 700 a month.
Now, knowing that he has disability- no, his little donations he gets cannot get him in trouble for fraud. Simply put, Lou is a small fish in a huge pond. We are all allowed to receive handouts in life, and the little donations he gets is so small it wouldn't be worth pursuing in a court of law. Lou doesn't have money, so the State of Pennsylvania isn't going to try him for fraud because of a few thousand.
You can work on disability. That is something I see some kiwis unsure of. You obviously cannot work a full time job...because if you could do that, you wouldn't need disability to begin with. You are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours a week if you are on disability. And I believe this number is generally speaking nation wide. You can volunteer as many hours as you would like, but getting paid is an entirely different ordeal.
I believe Lou rang the bell for salvation army because it was part of the community service punishment of an offense he had. I am not dedicated enough to find his arrest records at the moment, but if anyone else does, does the timeline add up? If so, there is the answer. Since he is a literal retard they may have just sentenced to him to community service and ringing a bell is something a one handed pirate could very well do. If he was getting paid, then obviously this is moot.
When you are on disability, you automatically qualify for foodstamps and medicaid. You still have to apply, however. If Lou is receiving foodstamps, he is probably getting at max $150 a month. And when you use foodstamps, you are not charged taxes, so you can effectively buy more food. Medicaid is basic healthcare, very cheap. Some states it includes dental, some it does not.
Unemployment fraud...as I am sure everyone was aware, during the Pandemic, many people were getting 600 a WEEK because of the federal help. However, Lou didn't qualify. He didn't have a job, self employed or otherwise. As far as stimulus check goes, I do not believe he ever received one. It was just a convenient cover story for using his disability funds. When he was super bummed out he didn't qualify at first, it was because his mom still claims him as a dependent. And they had a strict database of who qualified and who did not. So...pulling the wool over the gubberment was a little harder to do.
Long post is long...and I am sure there are some points I missed...I think someone had mentioned he might be attempting medical fraud because of the foot wound...? Which isn't the case. The foot ulcer is under a year in prevalence, so that didn't earn him disability. Idk, hopefully this post helps!
