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Hundreds of licensed Missouri drivers receive blind benefits BY BLAKE NELSON Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, MO. Hundreds of people with active Missouri driver's licenses are collecting from a pension fund set up for blind residents, Gov. Eric Greitens said Friday in alleging widespread abuse of the system. An investigation by the Department of Social Services and the Department of Revenue had flagged 436 people using the fund who also had driver's licenses, Greitens said in a statement. The Department of Social Services is now investigating at least 100 of those cases, including one person with a commercial driver's license and another who was charged with driving while intoxicated. The investigation also found that some people had successfully renewed their driver's licenses while receiving benefits. License renewal requires better vision than is allowed for the fund. "People who are abusing this system aren't just stealing from taxpayers, they're stealing from the most vulnerable," Greitens said in the statement. The fund was established almost a century ago. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported earlier this month that about 2,900 people participated in the program, which provides monthly payments of more than $700 as well as Medicaid benefits. The statement did not say when the investigation began. The governor's office did not return requests for comment, and representatives for the governor and the Department of Social Services did not immediately respond to requests to see the full investigation. The press release came a week before a Cole County judge is to consider a multi-million dollar settlement between Missouri and many blind residents. Earlier this year, the state agreed to pay $21 million to blind Missourians who said they hadn't received money they were owed through the state fund. The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit filed more than a decade ago by the Missouri Council of the Blind, who argued that the Family Support Division and the Department of Social Services had been underpaying blind residents. A bill that would further restrict what blind residents can receive benefits was overwhelmingly approved by the House March 15. It is now under consideration in the Senate. | ||
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אַרְיֵה |
If I were In Charge Of Things, all driving privileges for these people would be suspended until they had reimbursed all benefits received in this program. With interest. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Muzzle flash aficionado  |
How on GGE can a blind person be allowed to drive? flashguy Texan by choice, not accident of birth | |||
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safe & sound |
I had an aunt, long deceased, who couldn't walk up the sidewalk alone due to the stairs that she couldn't see. Somebody would have to walk with her to point out where she would need to step up. She passed every test at the DMV, and regularly drove halfway across the state to visit us. | |||
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Only the strong survive |
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| safe & sound |
Funny story about my blind driving aunt. She lived near a well known Missouri restaurant where they throw rolls across the dining room for you to catch. Having lived in southern Missouri for years this restaurant was a regular stop for her. She may have had vision problems, but her reflexes never paid much attention to them. She would put her hands up (signal to throw roll) and take one to the face every single time.  | |||
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| It's not easy being me |
Hell, I could drive as well as Porter, if I had that hot young blonde giving me treats & telling me what I needed to do... _______________________________________ Flammable, Inflammable, or Nonflammable....... Hell, either it Flams or it doesn't!! (George Carlin) | |||
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| Only the strong survive |
I had an Aunt that was 99 the day we buried her. Lived in the house she was raised in which had running water but no inside toilet. Put out a garden every year until the last four years she lived in an Assisted Living Facility. People from that period were tough and never throw anything away. 41 | |||
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Comic Relief |
Good boy! Good boy! Which is better, a dog driver or a self-driving car? | |||
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| Lawyers, Guns and Money  |
Lol! It's not me... but I should be wearing my glasses when I drive! "Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown "The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor | |||
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| Distinguished Pistol Shot |
Maybe that’s where they got the idea for Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. | |||
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