No but I get a sense you aren’t the sort to have kids because of the welfare benefit.
My aunt managed after the fourth suicide attempt.
so you’re telling me there’s a chance
As a man who has been on both SSI and SSDI for about twenty years now, I approve of this OP.
I certainly never worked under the table (that would be illegal). Oddly, I got more in food stamps twenty years ago. They just keep cutting them despite my financial situation worsening due to inflation. My health insurance isn’t that bad- except for dental. I get Paxil, lithium carbonate, Concerta, Mirtazipine and Vraylar for a total of less than $10 each month. But, a few years ago when I woke up from a nap with a partially paralyzed hand , my second question (the first of course was ‘what the hell is wrong with my hand?’) was ‘will my insurance cover this?’ (BTW It turned out that I had pinched the nerve trunk in my arm. With physical therapy, it got better in a few weeks. In the meantime it was hard to work at the under the table job that I didn’t have because that would be illegal.) As far as phones go, Ronald Reagan started a program to get free phones to the poor. Today, that means cell phones. Safe Link is a wonderful program. It provided me with a flip phone. But, when my sister said ‘Mebbe you can use this old iPhone’ it turns out I was able to switch my SL number to it for the cost of an SL sim card (roughly $1). Here in PA, we have the Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program. This provides me with about $250 each winter. I don’t know of a companion program to provide cooling assistance. Since the Pandemic, Safe Link has been providing unlimited minutes and data. The government has given me stimulus payments. The food stamp folks have given me at least twice as much.
As I said in a recent thread ‘I’m Stuck In The Twilight Zone’ But that’s not relevant here. As I said in another thread I started, I now have a part time job that the government knows about. I have hope again.
You could qualify for disability payments. Let me ask you; how attached are you to all four limbs? And how unattached are you willing to be?
Wow, that’s changed in the last 15 years or so … When they decided I wasn’t disabled anymore I hired a disability advocate who was recommended by the ca bar place and she couldn’t charge me more than 1500 totally and only if I won and it took a year in a half so I go into this meeting and it was over in 15 minutes …
Why? because I had 15 years of paperwork backing me up and well social security admitted they lost my file 2-5 years before, hence the reason I had to have the eval in the first place … and the judge says “well he has more proof than you do so he wins” …
I get that this is mostly just a post to attack Republicans; but I come from an extended Appalachian family that actually has people who have lived off a dole their entire lives, so I have some insight into how it happens.
There’s a few things that enable it.
One of the big ones is extremely cheap or free housing. In Appalachia unlike with the urban poor, most of the extreme poor actually own land or a home, or live with a relative that does. Land and houses in the rough parts of Appalachia is shockingly cheap, but is also often held by one family dating back 100+ years. Property taxes are very low as well.
The other two major elements are foodstamps–which that program is significantly magnified by having dependent children, and permanent disability, which is about the only way left after the Clinton welfare reforms to get a life long, monthly cash check no strings attached from the government.
The issue with OP is his life is already incompatible with this in a number of ways. None of the people in my extended family who have been defrauding the disability system for sometimes 40+ years, has ever had a mortgage, they live in houses and on land that’s been in my family since the late 19th century. This is not at all uncommon in Appalachia.
I think you can somewhat replicate this in an urban environment, but you need Section 8 housing or public housing, in the few places that still offer public housing. My understanding is the waitlists for traditional public housing are long and often times considered non-viable option if you aren’t already in that system.
You aren’t going to have a lot of nice things in life by being someone who lives off the dole, which even “dumb” conservatives have never really seriously believed.
That being said most of my family that have been defrauding the disability system for years, have actually worked intermittently. My aunt who has never had reported income in her life, used to clean houses here and there for spending money. She eventually married a man 20 years her senior who, when he died, she inherited his coal mining pension, which is a rare largesse, and she’s been collecting on that for some time. I have several cousins who have never been part of the formal economy, but who have done lots of manual labor type jobs under the table while most of them collect a disability check.
At least in Appalachia there are law firms that specialize in getting you on disability, it’s always been said to me your first claim will always be denied, and the law firm specializes in the appeal, which usually goes your way, and then you’re set.
Yep, to get $700 a month after risking your life four times and spending thousands in hospital bills…the ROI really isn’t great.
Yeah, SSI will let you keep one house and one vehicle - but you’d better own them because there is no way you are paying a mortgage on $700 a month and still managing to pay for the other things you need, because even with food stamps, you are very likely going to have to dip into that check to pay for food. Which often means you get the generational disability you see in Appalachia. As Doc implied, its better to live in a state that offers some supplemental help - heating at the very least - or live in a place where supplemental help isn’t that necessary (but we now know even Texas gets cold enough to freeze to death).
Doc - my aunt has been on one of those “part time work without it impacting her payments” for a while now, and its really helping. She doesn’t feel like if she fails, she will be back at zero, which removes some of the stress and anxiety. She gets the dopamine from doing SOMETHING and not feeling like a complete failure. And she has a small amount of money that is hers.
Just don’t lose a limb in the commission of a felony. You get bupkis from Social Security.
In Minnesota, General Assistance is $250/mo, reviewed every six months. Pretty much any employment kicks you off. Any other financial obligations you have are irrelevant. SNAP is around $175/mo, so no steaks for you. There is housing assistance, but not if you own a house. Medical is a weird area. You’d qualify through MNSure (the exchange), but would probably receive medical assistance without copays. However, I have seen people still having to buy off the exchange.
What I know of in NY, and some of tis is approximated, you can get Medicade which actually is pretty good and is really real health insurance from a company with most thing zero deductible/ zero copay/zero monthly and most Rx drugs at $5,$3 or $1 per refill. This is by far the largest benefit. SNAP falls just short of $200/month, Some other cash allowance of another about $200/month is possible. Heating help of apx $600/year, though this does include a free fixing your furnace/boiler if it fails and a free high efficiency one if it’s beyond repair. And a free cell phone (voice/txt only), some areas have free home internet service also (it depends on the provider - it may just be discounted $10 per month). So it does fall short of living on it, and once you start having income those things start dropping off the list.
When DesertWife was diagnosed with ALS the onset was quicker than the literature suggested.
Five months after diagnosis she was discharged from her job in January and got the recommendation to apply for SSI. SSDI was not an option as, being a spouse, my assets were way too high to qualify.
Unfortunately, as a Medtech a good bit of her job history was in government hospitals (No SSA deductions) and she was two quarters short of qualifying; we got this decision in March. Before we got far in the appeal process she died at the end of May, rendering the whole thing moot. I’m not sure we would have gotten any checks by then even if she had qualified.
Why have you not reported them?
I’m not particularly close to the relatives involved for a number of reasons (many of them are petty criminals and have a history of drug addiction, so are not pleasant people to have in your life and I’ve severed ties over the years), I don’t view them as my responsibility. It certainly isn’t my job to go around reporting people for SSDI fraud, and I don’t plan to pursue it as a hobby.
Well, not to get this into a hijack, but since they are stealing from you (and me, and every taxpayer) , I would think it would be your responsibility.
Just like if I saw a robbery i would report it.
I haven’t seen a robbery, though. I know from “family gossip” that for example cousins of mine who have been on SSDI for years regularly do roofing work that manifestly demonstrates they have no real physical disability. I don’t have specific, actionable evidence, and have not personally witnessed anything. Given the extremely low amount of resources committed to investigating SSDI fraud, if I were to call in with this information I suspect it would be filed in the office round file. I don’t see the state paying someone to stake them out for weeks until they catch them, based on a hearsay tip.
I also think going too hard after SSDI fraud isn’t a good use of government resources. All evidence suggests rates of fraud in welfare programs in America is extremely law, and the system is already somewhat dysfunctional because of onerous and poorly structured qualification criteria implemented out of unjustified fears of widespread fraud. These programs involve many billions of dollars and a small % of fraud. I think there is some specific historical / cultural shit in rural Appalachia that makes it a region where this sort of thing goes on more frequently, but overall the SSDI program has low rates of fraud and more focus should be spent on shoring those programs up, not investigating poor people–especially in a country where the IRS has basically been defunded from investigating upwards of $700bn/yr in unpaid taxes by the rich.
Oh please. Not in this case. @Martin_Hyde is taking the best course, given the situation.
Ya gotta pick your battles and fighting this one seems pointless to me. Unless you’re some kind of Righteous Crusader.
I think you have these reversed. Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) has a work history requirement but no assets tests; Supplemental Security Income (SSI) has strict assets tests but is available to anyone without sufficient work history, even none at all.
Huh. I even looked it up because I couldn’t remember which was what. Damn this lisdexia.
We should question why a single adult male living alone needs a 1500 sq. ft. house.
I am a single adult male living alone, comfortably enough in a 600 sq. ft. 1-br. apartment for $725/mo. in a smallish farm town. And it’s not terribly isolated either, just a two hour drive from San Francisco just in case I ever need to go there.
My SS income is just almost enough to live on, supplemented by a mere $3000/year that I pull from my retirement account. Before all this, I was on SSDI disability for several years. When you reach retirement age, your SSDI automatically ends and is converted to SS.
I think @JohnT should do these things:
- Re-consider whether he really needs a house, or whether a 600 sq. ft. apartment will do.
- Attempt to get onto SSDI. As noted above, it’s a crapshoot. A few sessions with a seemingly-sympathetic psychiatrist is apparently what did it for me (got approved on my first attempt)
- Review your overall lifestyle. Are you accustomed to living a little more extravagantly than you need to? I am certainly not living extravagantly, but I don’t feel too terribly financially crimped either. Well, a little bit, but I’m living comfortably enough. I have my apartment, a car in fairly good condition despite being 20 years old, and seemingly good medical coverage.
I think if OP can just get onto SSDI, nothing stops him from duplicating what I have done.
ETA: BTW, while on SSDI you can still earn a limited amount of income from doing actual work, even if you honestly report it all, and not jeopardize your SSDI. I did that for several years too.