What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Mississippi
I am concerned for a cousin of mine. I do not know what all background info is necessary here so I will try to provide an adequate summary.
My cousin is crazy. We have all always known it, but it didn't really sink in for him until after he failed out of college for the third time. Before that, he refused to give up trying again and again to keep a job. I don't know much about psychology or the specific names for what he has, but it seems to me his problems are a matter of being unable to understand people, their emotions, or the unwritten rules and boundaries that make social relationships succeed or fail, which normal people intuitively understand. He has the intellect necessary to succeed, but almost no social skills whatsoever. He thought that if he couldn't keep a normal menial job, maybe a college education would allow him to obtain the kind of job where his intellect alone would be enough. "Professors and scientists are allowed to be eccentric," he would say.
Finally, after failing college for the third time and finally reaching the bottom of a downward spiral that ended in homelessness and hunger, he agreed to submit to the mental evaluation and therapy process. These doctors almost immediately diagnosed him with a whole handful of conditions. I don't know all the names and details, but I remember hearing the words "autism spectrum", "developmental disorder", and "personality disorder", but when I look these things up I see a whole list of different conditions. But I guess those details are probably irrelevant here.
So now he receives mental disability payments, but naturally the school loan people want to collect the debt, and the other day he got a letter from social security that said they would start garnishing his payment (which is already a very low amount: around $400. By the way, is a benefit amount this low unusual? I thought they were usually around $1000). The letter said that it was possible to get this loan forgiven with a letter from a physician. But the doctors he sees at the free mental health clinic are not physicians. He sees a talking-type counselor for therapy, and the person he gets prescriptions from is a nurse practitioner.
How can the government need the testimony of more doctors now, after all the doctor testimony they used to determine he was disabled?
His payment barely pays for his rent and food. I'm afraid to recommend that he go spend some of it at the office of a doctor who has never met him, in case the doctor declines to help, causing this precious little money to be wasted.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I am concerned for a cousin of mine. I do not know what all background info is necessary here so I will try to provide an adequate summary.
My cousin is crazy. We have all always known it, but it didn't really sink in for him until after he failed out of college for the third time. Before that, he refused to give up trying again and again to keep a job. I don't know much about psychology or the specific names for what he has, but it seems to me his problems are a matter of being unable to understand people, their emotions, or the unwritten rules and boundaries that make social relationships succeed or fail, which normal people intuitively understand. He has the intellect necessary to succeed, but almost no social skills whatsoever. He thought that if he couldn't keep a normal menial job, maybe a college education would allow him to obtain the kind of job where his intellect alone would be enough. "Professors and scientists are allowed to be eccentric," he would say.
Finally, after failing college for the third time and finally reaching the bottom of a downward spiral that ended in homelessness and hunger, he agreed to submit to the mental evaluation and therapy process. These doctors almost immediately diagnosed him with a whole handful of conditions. I don't know all the names and details, but I remember hearing the words "autism spectrum", "developmental disorder", and "personality disorder", but when I look these things up I see a whole list of different conditions. But I guess those details are probably irrelevant here.
So now he receives mental disability payments, but naturally the school loan people want to collect the debt, and the other day he got a letter from social security that said they would start garnishing his payment (which is already a very low amount: around $400. By the way, is a benefit amount this low unusual? I thought they were usually around $1000). The letter said that it was possible to get this loan forgiven with a letter from a physician. But the doctors he sees at the free mental health clinic are not physicians. He sees a talking-type counselor for therapy, and the person he gets prescriptions from is a nurse practitioner.
How can the government need the testimony of more doctors now, after all the doctor testimony they used to determine he was disabled?
His payment barely pays for his rent and food. I'm afraid to recommend that he go spend some of it at the office of a doctor who has never met him, in case the doctor declines to help, causing this precious little money to be wasted.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
