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You just can't put it in the bank. You have to save cash and go buy a money order.
Yellowsnow, we really need to point out that "cash on hand" IS included in assets and your friend who chooses to hide it is committing fraud.
I'm going to run the numbers later and see if the maximum SNAP benefit is applicable given the numbers you have provided as well as full assistance with Medicare Parts B and D. It's not that I think you are wrong, it's that I enjoy running the numbers (kind of like Mathjak but for poor people).
However, without running the numbers we still need to help your friend with moving expenses.
My friend is one of many, that in retirement, gets way more than she contributed, anytime she hears the word "free" or new a new government aid program, she is the first in line and she will get it, she knows how to play the system. My father worked for over 45 years at one place, never earned a lot of money, always contributed to the system, rec'd less than $900 a month SS at age 65, no food stamps, this friend gets more than he did...explain this to me!
I think this scenario is what rubs so many Americans the wrong way, casting aspersion on those who HAVE worked all their lives and paid into the system over so many years and took no assistance, even when making low income. This is just one instance of easy stereotyping—"those low-income seniors are all making out on the backs of us taxpayers."
I am in Florida, many retired people here live on a shoestring. A friend gets $490 in SS, $310 in you don't make $ from the government. Also gets $200 in food stamps, She worked under the table most of her life, wanted that instant gratification, never put away a dime. Now, as she has always done, lives from paycheck to paycheck. She pays 0 for Medicare and gets all her scripts free. Plus, free dental! She lives in a dump of a single wide mobile home and pays around $300 a month in lot rent, she bought her mobile home for $500, from her last tax refund (2013). No car. She wastes $150 a month of her money on cigarettes, she has cable, internet and greats a free snap cell phone.
Right now I clear $1,296.00 from SS, when I am 70, I will switch from my deceased husbands to mine. The gov. deducts $104 for the script part of Medicare, also estimated taxes. I get no food stamps, no aid of any type, never have, in fact, I have never collected unemployment. I, like so many other seniors who worked and contributed the max to SS are the real losers. We are the same ones who invested for our future retirement, and are punished for doing so, all we do is continue to pay...taxes on every dime we have saved....over and over again...the American way! I am not wealthy, I live in a small home and within my means.
My friend is one of many, that in retirement, gets way more than she contributed, anytime she hears the word "free" or new a new government aid program, she is the first in line and she will get it, she knows how to play the system. My father worked for over 45 years at one place, never earned a lot of money, always contributed to the system, rec'd less than $900 a month SS at age 65, no food stamps, this friend gets more than he did...explain this to me!
Clearly this person is not your "friend".
Let's see... You received survivors' benefits because Social Security has decided what? That because you were once married to someone that you deserve this? And you worked the system so that your benefits would gain 8% a year while you collect your dead husband's benefit. There are many single women out that who do not have dead husbands. So, is this not an undeserved benefit?
You own a home. Nice. Was this purchased on your own or with your husband's help? Oh, that's right...the big "We." Did you ever claim a mortgage interest deduction? It's interesting that you provide the amount of SS that you clear but not your total annual income.
Why would you begrudge a "friend" who is living in a "dump of a single wide mobile home"? Huh? Is it because your father received less than $900 at age 65? In what year did he turn 65? You have told us absolutely nothing of your "friend's" past. How do you know she did not work as hard as your father? Did you mother work harder than your friend?
I don't live like your friend but I certainly take advantage of the free or reduced products/services offered to seniors. In fact, I received my annual flu shot at the Dept of Social Services. I have also used the senior center on occasion. My bad.
To the original poster (Yellowsnow): Your story about your friend is valuable because it is an illustration of an actual case with actual numbers, as opposed to a generalized rant about the elderly poor or about a heartless society. And of course your story shows how incredibly generous the safety net is, if not in this country as a whole, at least in Las Vegas. (I am assuming that certain benefits vary from state to state and/or from locality to locality). I hope I will be able to remember your thread title in order to be able to use your original post in the future the next time someone starts bellyaching about how rough seniors have it in this country. Thanks for your rational, thoughtful, and balanced manner of presenting the story.
To Dollydo (writer of post #21): I could not rep you again this soon, but your point is an excellent one. When we read the details about your irresponsible friend, it is difficult if not impossible not to feel anger about how her irresponsibility is so generously rewarded, and about how those generous rewards are taken from all the rest of us.
Just to be clear, I am in favor of having a safety net in society. The point I am raising has to do with how we would characterize the safety net which is actually in place; I would characterize it as incredibly generous.
save your breath . he will never change and will just fill the forum threads with tales of poor freemkt and how no one will lower their standards so his failure can be rewarded in some fashion.
we have been listening to his complaining for years now with no action on his side..
It's why I put him on "ignore". He has nothing new to say, just the same old, same old.
I don't know what is what about this. All I know is this: every poor person I have known and currently know (sans the homeless) do pretty well. They have housing, food, medical care, don't pay taxes -- and they can afford The Internet and/or Cable. I sometimes wonder why I worked so hard, at such a stressful job, for almost 30 years. Oh well, now that I've 'vented' -- I had, do have and will have a much better life than they do. But it irritates the H out of me that my neighbors, who are on some form of public assistance (which I helped fund with my former income taxes and currently help to fund with my current income taxes), at various ages, have enough money for everything (it seems), including alcohol and drugs. And how can they afford a smart phone????!!!!
Yes, there are always very legitimate reasons and circumstances for a person being poor, especially older women who were divorced by their husbands. But a lot of the time it's simply because people don't want to work and have found a way to avoid doing it or didn't want to work, didn't plan at all for retirement, and now they expect that we, who worked and paid taxes, to support them.
Let's see... You received survivors' benefits because Social Security has decided what? That because you were once married to someone that you deserve this? And you worked the system so that your benefits would gain 8% a year while you collect your dead husband's benefit. There are many single women out that who do not have dead husbands. So, is this not an undeserved benefit?
You own a home. Nice. Was this purchased on your own or with your husband's help? Oh, that's right...the big "We." Did you ever claim a mortgage interest deduction? It's interesting that you provide the amount of SS that you clear but not your total annual income.
Why would you begrudge a "friend" who is living in a "dump of a single wide mobile home"? Huh? Is it because your father received less than $900 at age 65? In what year did he turn 65? You have told us absolutely nothing of your "friend's" past. How do you know she did not work as hard as your father? Did you mother work harder than your friend?
I don't live like your friend but I certainly take advantage of the free or reduced products/services offered to seniors. In fact, I received my annual flu shot at the Dept of Social Services. I have also used the senior center on occasion. My bad.
I agree. I really get tired of all these individuals constantly griping about other people getting something that they're "not entitled to", especially when the complainers frequently get things that maybe they're "not entitled to" as well.
Many women of my generation were encouraged to not have career aspirations. Some unlucky members of my generation, women and men, were actively discouraged by their families/friends/culture from getting an education, even from getting a high school diploma, or otherwise improving their economic status. Well, when you don't have education or skills or you live in an economic backwater, you take what you can get, and a lot of those jobs pay a pittance, don't last long, and some of them, like agricultural jobs, aren't covered by social security, either.
Rather than obsessing over other people getting something that they don't "deserve", I think that a lot more people should be thankful for what they themselves have. We don't get to pick the circumstance of our birth or most of the other circumstances of our lives. Sometimes what happens in our childhoods influences all the rest of our lives, and other times, things just come out of the blue that we have no control over.
If you were born into a family where you were taught the values and habits that enabled you to do well, you should be thankful.
If you were born with average or better intelligence and decent health, you should be thankful for that as well.
If you married the right person the first time or even the second time, count yourself lucky, too.
If you and/or your spouse found and kept steady employment, that's something to be really thankful for.
If nobody in your family suffered a catastrophic medical issue that bankrupted the family, count your blessings.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point. I personally don't begrudge some retired person scraping by on $500/month in SSI, living in a subsidized apartment, and getting Medicaid even if I don't approve of some of his/her habits (like smoking). I'm satisfied that I don't have to live like that.
Well, whatever we believe, the reality is that if the seniors who are getting gov't assistance cease to get any, or never got any, there would be an awful lot of elderly folks living on the streets, placed in temporary housing (at taxpayer expense) and inevitably going from there on to permanent subsidized housing (how many shelters can continue to retain so many).
As someone on another thread aptly pointed out, subsidized senior housing is an industry (for owners), with profit. Seems like even the poor get money made off them. It's all part of the natural cycle of our system, capitalism. IOW, even if housing were not provided to economically poor seniors, taxpayers inevitably help in some way, with or without their consent. It's the system we have created, so why rail against it. I'd like to hear some alternatives in which taxpayers do not pay.
Rather than obsessing over other people getting something that they don't "deserve", I think that a lot more people should be thankful for what they themselves have. We don't get to pick the circumstance of our birth or most of the other circumstances of our lives. Sometimes what happens in our childhoods influences all the rest of our lives, and other times, things just come out of the blue that we have no control over.
Linda_d,
Bravo! I could not have stated better so myself.
I wake up everyday feeling grateful and contented. I think remembering to be thankful for what you have instead of begrudging or being envious of others is the 'secret' for having positive thoughts and living a happy life.
That's a good attitude. I need to practice it more often. My wife is better at it than I.
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I really get tired of all these individuals constantly griping about other people getting something that they're "not entitled to", especially when the complainers frequently get things that maybe they're "not entitled to" as well. 
