Price v. Colvin

Price, an almost illiterate, mentally retarded 44-year-old who also suffers from psychiatric ailments, intermittently received Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, having been adjudged disabled in 1988, 1991, and 2007. His benefits should have been terminated in 2005 because he was sent to prison for a felony sex offense, but the record is unclear as to when benefits stopped. Paroled in 2010, he unsuccessfully applied for the same benefits that he had received before he entered prison. After reviewing the history of Price’s mental problems, his inability to function in society, doctor’s assessments, his nocturnal habits, and test scores, the Seventh Circuit remanded, finding the administrative law judge’s reasons for finding that Price was not disabled “unconvincing.” As is common in social security disability proceedings, the administrative law judge inferred from Price’s ability to perform simple household chores, such as cooking food in a microwave oven and mowing the lawn, that he could be gainfully employed, but “it’s easier—especially for someone with an antisocial psychiatric disorder—to work in one’s own home, at one’s own pace, at one’s own choice of tasks, than to work by the clock under supervision in a place of business.” View "Price v. Colvin" on Justia Law