Now who is disabled?

"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,..."
~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Now enters a new claim for a non-duty permanent disability pension. You can probably figure out what this is, but take it apart if you are having trouble with it.

Pension - money you receive on a regular basis, possibly for life.
Disability - unable to work. Perhaps unable to perform the significant requirements of the occupation; sometimes all of the requirements.
Permanent - expected to last a lifetime, or maybe only more than one year.
Non-duty - Did not occur at work. Results from injury or illness away from work. Not a Workers' Compensation claim.

"Non-duty" is often thought of in the cases of police officers or firefighters who apply for disability pensions. Non-duty, as in "off-duty". Or in the cases of other law enforcement officers. Say, deputy sheriffs.

If a person were "under fire" (and I don't mean dodging real bullets) at his place of employment (perhaps serving out a paid administrative leave, for example) and was worried that the "paid" part of the leave might get changed to "unpaid" leave, thus leaving him with no income, might that employee conclude that he really was disabled and ought to apply for a pension?

Let's say he's not old enough to qualify for a retirement pension and as a person in good physical shape and able to function in his former employment without physical restriction, could he slip on a banana peel or some "black ice", feel a little back pain, and think, "Aha, I'm disabled. Feels permanent to me..."?

How disabled have some permanently-disabled people been in the past? Some of them have made long road trips without difficulty; others have been video-taped doing somersaults on trampolines. Those sneaky investigators with the cameras and the long lenses show up at the worst times, don't they?