I beliebe it tops out at $1011 per week.
I just rented out a trailer of mine to some seasonal river guides, I asked one of them where he had been staying. “Dude, last night I slept in a kids’ tree fort”.
There’s SSDI (social security disability insurance), the paid-in complement to SSI (Supplemental Security Income), which is a transfer payment.
SSI maxes out at about $12 thousand annually (or $1,000 monthly), and some states include a small state supplement. The other key benefit to collecting SSI is Medicaid eligibility. SSI eligibility is means-tested in point of income (including SSDI payments) and assets.
SSDI is a disability insurance payment, so benefits depend on how much one has paid in, also keeping in mind that OASDI (old age, survivors, and disability insurance) taxes are limited to the first $X of income in any year. Thus, there is a maximum. Currently, it is about $2,300 per month. But that’s if you had very high earnings, up to the wage limit (and so paid very high taxes/premiums).
In many countries in Europe there is an upper cap for their stats, but the difference is that those countries have more generous government pensions, so that pretty much everyone over a certain age is eligible and receives and is discouraged from working.
I think that’s unfortunate too …but for a dif reason.
If you are correct, someone who was in the workforce can collect unemployment for a year plus and then decide to go the disability route. You are either disabled or you aren’t. Now don’t go saying I have no sympathy for the truly disabled… but I do stand guilty of having a whole lot of something for those who game the system.
Perhaps this strategy is not as prevalent as suggested and doesn’t really answer the GQ then.
As they say, there’s lies, damned lies and statistics.
I’m sure a lot of the people not looking for work anymore have gone back to school and are living on student loans and the like. Or have gone “freelance” in one way or another.
When my husband joined the military, I had to leave my job in order to stay with him. I had no idea how miserable the economy was until I couldn’t find work in my new city. After months of searching, I started working under the table, but I had to leave that job after I became pregnant. Although officially companies aren’t allow to discriminate against pregnant women, it’s impossible to find a job as one unless you hide it. I’ll probably end up on WIC, and my husband and I will stretch his small income until I can return to work. If his job wasn’t basically guaranteed (very hard to get fired and they give him a small life insurance policy), and his health insurance excellent, this pregnancy could have ruined us.
I have a lot of friends in similar situations. I’ve never answered a telephone survey about my employment and I’ve never applied for unemployment, but I do want to be employed.