Dana Pollard started a new job at the end of 2022, after spending three years recovering from a 2019 stroke.
“‘A lot of places, they don’t have the facility to help people with disabilities go back to work, and they don’t have the educational tools.’” “A lot of places, they don’t have the facility to help people with disabilities go back to work, and they don’t have the educational tools. They don’t have the capabilities for disabled people to actually work in their facilities,” Pollard told MarketWatch.
But the pandemic has also made employers more flexible and more inclusive, pushing them to better adapt to the needs of workers who have long COVID or other disabilities, experts said.It’s a myth that workers with disabilities, in particular those enrolled in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, don’t want to be in the workforce, said Diane Winiarski, director of Allsup Employment Services.
For those who receive SSDI or SSI benefits, an 8.7% increase was applied to monthly benefits starting Jan 1. This increase means the average monthly SSDI benefit for a worker with a disability will increase by $119 to $1,483, according to the Social Security Administration. Inflation in the U.S. reached a 40-year high last June and has squeezed Americans’ budgets. The year-over-year increase in the cost of living has shown some signs of cooling, but it was still 7.1% in November compared with the previous year. In October, several low-income families told MarketWatch that they could not afford to buy meat, while others said they had to juggle utility payments and grocery bills.
Winiarski recommends that employers test the waters, perhaps reassigning workers to different duties or dividing up nonessential roles. “We encourage part-time work — and then gradually increasing the hours,” she said.When it comes to finding jobs, workers with disabilities face a variety of challenges, Winiarski said. But for those on SSDI, the first challenge is often in overcoming fear and helplessness, she added.
Long Covid. Lol
long covid eh?
Lolololololololol “long Covid” lolololololololololololol