[NFBMO] Blind Pension Legislation

[GeneCoulter at Charter.net]

I do believe there is some retaliation involved in the legislation as
well as some desire on DSS to tighten up the  eligibility to make it
more difficult to receive the benefits to save money as due to increases
in Health claims money has had to be taken from general revenue  to make
up the difference.
The provision that DSS could reduce the pension has been there for a
long time but what they did is make it much easier to reduce the pension
as they watered down the formula to  make a decision that would more
benefit the state budget and be able to justify what they did.  This
part of the legislation appears to be the part that is in direct
retaliation for the lawsuit.
As for the drivers license issue I believe there is no one who receives
the pension that should be driving however suppose you are newly blind
and dealing with the psychological trauma of the vision loss. It is hard
enough to admit you can no longer drive but having to march into the DMV
to forfeit your license is humiliating. I have spoken with several
persons who were questioned by FSD about still having licenses but to a
person they were no longer driving but found it hard to walk into the
DMV to give up their license as they felt as if they were losing a piece
of their lives.  While no one should be allowed to renew their license
it seemed appropriate to me that a few month grace period be allowed for
such persons adjusting to their new reality.
As for the sighted spouse issue, Gary Wunder has expressed this very
well. It all comes down to why should a  blind person married to a
sighted person be treated any differently than a blind person that
marries another blind person?
Of course, none of that matters as the Governor is likely to sign the
bill sometime next month. 
 Gene


-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMO <nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Bryan Schulz via
NFBMO
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 8:07 PM
To: 'NFB of Missouri Mailing List' <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Bryan Schulz <b.schulz at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [NFBMO] Blind Pension Legislation

Hi,

What retaliation?
It's common sense.
Why should you be allowed to have a drivers license if your vision is
poor enough to qualify for blind pension?
A spouse can still make 82k and the spouse still gets to keep receiving
blind pension?
A stl state employee made about 50k for years and still received blind
pension, all she had to do is lie on the annual form.
Bryan


-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMO <nfbmo-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Roger Crome via
NFBMO
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2018 12:43 PM
To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Roger Crome <r_crome1 at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBMO] Blind Pension Legislation

Yep, definite retaliation for the lawsuit.

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 18, 2018, at 10:03 PM, Gene Coulter via NFBMO 
> <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
> 
> HB 2171, the Blind Pension bill, was truly agreed to and finally 
> passed late on Thursday.
> 
> The amendments include the 500% poverty limit for a sighted spouse and

> forbid the recipients from having a drivers license among other items.
> 
> Gene
> 
> 
> 
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