#ssi disability

[saminthea]

Me, talking to the doctor SSI Disability sent me to for an official report: Yeah, I have to walk with a cane if I'm going to be on my feet for more than an hour, I can't even really sit up for more than an hour without pain, and I'm frequently bedridden by chronic fatigue

Dr.'s report she sent to the SSI office: This patient has no barriers to working any job for 8 hours a day 5 days a week 😊

[starwhoopsass]

if you live in the US and care about disabled people please do not scroll

SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act is going to have a hearing this December, please send a message to your representatives to support this bill

here's more information:

here's the website where you can contact your representatives:

[post-human-oddity]

does anyone familiar with this system understand how the overlap between SSI disability checks and section 8 housing vouchers would work? my SSI doesn’t provide me with enough to functionally live off of, but if i get a side gig or sell art even that proves im capable of working and i’ll lose my disability… my “low income” housing is still above 1k a month, which feels insane to me. but im afraid to apply for a housing voucher in case it fucks with my SSI and i end up getting like $13 a month instead because i have “no cost of living”

my disabilities directly impact my ability to think clearly and research this effectively… funny how all resources for disabled people deliberately built to be inaccessible for the exact people they are pretending to try and help

[starfightervicki]

And if you somehow get on Disability (I couldn't have without my mother, and not everyone has a mother who will and can), you live your life in fear of the government thinking you can do more than 0%.

[medical-angel]

I need to stop looking through the ssi disability tag if I want to make it to next year

[bitchesgetriches]

✨NEW POST!✨

The Social Safety Net for Disabled People Is Broken

The Center for American Progress interviewed disabled people who had been through the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course that is the bureaucratic process of applying for disability benefits. If I may summarize their experience in one sentence, it would be: The dehumanization is the point.

These folks described how they were treated like criminals and frauds; evaluated by unqualified medical professionals; judged by people who had no idea what their disability entailed; and how they spent money they didn’t have on lawyers just to access basic ADA protections.

Keep reading.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

Currently if you're disabled in the United States you cannot save over $2000. Having $2001 would put your disability benefits at risk. Also many disabled people have been unable to get married because if they get married their spouse's income will count against them. There is currently a bill in the senate that will increase that facing limit to $10,000 as well as grant marriage equality to disabled people.

A lot of my favorite disability advocates have been sharing this, but she's the only one that's explained both of the benefits of this bill. Petition to support the bill linked underneath the video.

[lastoneout]

The reason pointing out the fact that the money the Social Security Administration is withholding from you if YOUR money and they should have an obligation to give it back when the time comes makes me feel like I'm pulling libertarian talking points is 1) that's the logic Ayn Rand(may she rest in misery) used to justify accepting social security payments when she was old and I hate agreeing with that rancid hag about anything, and 2) just because while it is true that it's YOUR money a libertarian would look at the issues with the SSA and go "okay well we should just get rid of it then, welfare is theft, if you didn't save money for retirement you should just die" when the real problem isn't welfare and social safety nets funded by the people it's that the gov SAID they were creating a social safety net and then blew the fucking money and they know they fucked up and instead of owning up to it and fixing it they've been trying to blame the people for it ever since.

Like if you started working a part-time job at 15/16 and your parents decided you should give them like $25-50 out of every paycheck, matched it, and put it in a savings account where it could gain interest so that when you hit 18 you have a decent chunk of change to use to help you move or get a car or whatever, that wouldn't be a problem. The problem is if they took all the money, blew it on something stupid and then acted like it was your fault when you hit 18 and were pissed to discover that you don't have a savings account to help you transition to adulthood, especially because it was YOUR fucking money they took.

The issue isn't the concept of a social safety net, it's with the gov fucking it up and never figuring out how to un-fuck it up. And also that they deny people disability, I've said this before but it should be fucking illegal for them to do that. If you're disabled you get money, any society that fucks that up has failed.

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

i am majorly not a fan of how a bunch of disability tumblr is retiring "abled" in favor of "able-bodied," especially in contexts where it makes no logical sense. "able-bodied people have no idea how miserable it is to rely on SSI" for example. you are directly implying something about the lives of intellectually disabled people, people with downs, nonverbal people, etc, and i don't like it.

[chronicallycouchbound]

I refuse to call government assistance programs “welfare” or “benefits”.

I’ve been on government assistance programs my whole life. I have never lived above the poverty line.

It’s a system that doesn’t care about my wellbeing, they care about doing the bare minimum to keep people alive enough to function and work, and if you’re disabled and cannot work, they give significantly less of a fuck.

And benefits?? What benefits?

Food stamps that run out within two weeks because I am budgeting with 8$ a day with literally dozens of dietary restrictions? Or do you mean the housing voucher that I have to never even have a gift card, penny to my name, Sams club membership, phone bill, literally anything that could be “income” in order to qualify? That same housing voucher system that if I mess up even once with I not only lose all government aid for at least 5 years, it’s also mandatory PRISON time for 1 year?? “Oh but they would never do that, right?” Nope! I have several friends who are now felons for minor lease violations and unhoused as a result! Oh maybe you mean the state health insurance that doesn’t cover most treatments, specialists, and testing I need and if I tried to make a gofundme to cover, I would lose aforementioned housing? Oh and we can’t forget all the money I get for being disabled, which is exactly 0$. I’m still fighting for SSI and have been for 6 years! That’s over 6 years with absolutely zero income. ZERO. And guess what, whenever I *do* get on SSI, I will lose my housing voucher. And I won’t be able to afford my current apartment because even in subsidized low income housing it’s too expensive for the maximum SSI “benefit” amount. And on SSI you can’t have savings over 2000$. Oh and they do make housing for people who are low income where you pay 30% of your income but I can’t even be on the waitlist since I don’t have any income. And on top of all this, I can never get married because I’ll lose all of the programs.

I could keep going. That’s not even half of the programs I’m a part of.

• None of them give me cash in hand. Even for vouchers I have to provide receipts for everything.

• Food stamps just straight up won’t even cover ineligible items. Which includes hot foods.

• I genuinely don’t believe that there’s a way to “game the system” and why would you? You would gain literally nothing.

• It’s designed to keep people poor. Once you make over a certain amount, you lose all or almost all benefits. There’s no way to slowly transition out of the programs, if you’re someone who’s able to. It’s all in or all out.

• All of these barriers are made significantly worse while unhoused/homeless. I’ve been homeless for over half of my life and there’s so many fucked up rules. If I missed one night staying in the shelter, I lost my housing voucher because I no longer was “verified as homeless” even if I was sleeping outside still.

[spookietrex]

Had my disability hearing today. Got to explain a "bed day" to the judge. Also got to explain why I want to punch my partner's mom in the face when she says she loves me to the judge as a sign of my irritability. My lawyer explaining to my partner later: "Everybody's mom came up."

[rainofaugustsith]

I've already seem one Pride related post about this, so as a friendly neighborhood disabled person, I'd like to clarify something about disabled marriage equality. Whether a disabled person loses their benefits when they marry depends entirely on the TYPE of disability benefit they have. SSI and SSDI are the two most common and they are not the same. SSDI: Social Security Disability Insurance. Based on earnings overt a certain number of recent work quarters. Not income or asset based. Your payment depends on what you contributed while working over the years. SSDI makes you eligible for Medicare. There are two basic ways to lose SSDI: a) you are deemed non-disabled; b) you earn more than the amount set forward for SGA (substantial gainful activity) for a period longer than a trial work period of nine months. OR: You turn 67 and then start collecting regular Social Security retirement instead. That's it. SSDI does not care if you marry, divorce, win the lottery, move to Tahiti for the winter. Where this gets sticky, however, is that SSDI recipients often have income low enough to also qualify for Medicaid as a secondary insurance, Section 8 housing help or SNAP (food stamps). Those things can all be affected if a person marries and additional income is added to the household. But - if they marry they will not lose their Medicare or their SSDI. SSI:

Supplemental Security Income. If you are disabled but don't have the work credits to qualify for SSDI, you get this. It often happens to people who are disabled as children or teens, or those who have been out of the workforce for a while. SSI has a maximum monthly payment of under $1000/month. It is income and asset based. If you have more than a certain amount in the bank, if you marry, if you have too many other assets, if you move in with friends, if a friend gives you regular groceries, it all counts against you. You're poor and it's designed to keep you poor, and to balance out any small amount of help you may get. SSI gives you almost nothing to live on, but also bars you from receiving any assistance that might help because it will be counted against you. SSI qualifies you for Medicaid. SSI is a cruel system. The asset limits, the marriage penalty and the in-kind rules desperately need to be updated. People should not have to choose between getting married and keeping benefits. But SSDI and SSI are two different programs, both called 'disability' and in this discussion it's important to remember that to avoid giving inaccurate information.

[kurgy]

ive been sick and like slightly manic all day and ive realized why and to try to budget 20 more bucks just to take a damn uber to the pharmacy and pick up an important medication knowing they may full well fight me further on just giving me the damn thing and that I may have to do this multiple times

[bitchesgetriches]

Hey bitches! I have something that might be a useful thing for some of your readers. I’m disabled and started getting SSI recently. There is a thing called an ABLE account that lets a disabled person save money that SSI/SSDI would otherwise count against them. I was scared about making the account but it was really easy. I don’t think it’s a really well known program but more people should know about it. There is a basic rundown and links to state by state programs here: https://www.ablenrc.org/what-is-able/what-are-able-acounts/

Great work, babycakes!!! We're so proud of you for getting your ABLE Account started. Here's that link for everyone else: https://www.ablenrc.org/what-is-able/what-are-able-acounts/

We covered a bit about ABLE Accounts, SSI, and SSDI during Disability Pride Month this year:

Why There’s So Little (Good) Personal Finance for Disabled People 

The Social Safety Net for Disabled People Is Broken

Short-Term Disability Insurance Is a Waste of Money… With Two Very Specific Exceptions 

Long-Term Disability Insurance Is a Necessity… and a Scam 

Did we just help you out? Say thanks on Patreon.

[transfaguette]

Tuesday I have a phone interview with the social security admin for SSI...what should I know before hand?

[cleoselene]

I don't want to derail a perfectly good post with a pedantic point, but

SSDI does not have asset limits

SSI does

the main difference between SSDI is that Social Security has decided you have been in the workforce long enough to get full benefits that would normally come at 65

SSI is for people who have not worked, usually because they were never able bodied in the first place.

SSDI gets Medicare. SSI gets Medicaid.

SSDI has no asset limits, only limits on how much you can work and earn.

SSI has an asset limit of $2000.

So like, I'm on SSDI. So when my mom dies and I inherit her house and sell it (because I am not fucking staying in Florida without my mom omg), I won't be kicked off my SSDI. I will lose my food stamps and I will have to pay a premium for Medicare that I do not currently pay, but I will not lose my monthly paycheck. Someone on SSI -- their parents should set up a trust to trickle down money to them.

I see people conflating the two programs a lot. It's confusing, I get it. SSI is honestly a colossally unfair program that is extremely cruel. SSDI doesn't pay nearly enough, but it is a fair benefit program.