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To be eligible for SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program):
'Households may have $2,250 in countable resources, such as a bank account, or $3,250 in countable resources if at least one person is age 60 or older, or is disabled.'
that's straight from SNAP's website. So you have to be dirt poor in terms of savings.
(they do allow you to own a house, just not to have savings over the above amounts)
I know 2 people that went on disability with questionable injuries. Both really didn't want to work anymore. I wonder if they got SSI or SSDI.
If they're disabled and worked for 10 years/40 quarters, they could be collecting both if their SSDI payment is low enough. If they were minimum wage to $10/hour people, then they'd likely get both to top them up to poverty level. If they didn't work those 40 qualifying quarters, they'd only get SSI and that tops out at a bit more than $8K per year.
If they're disabled and worked for 10 years/40 quarters, they could be collecting both if their SSDI payment is low enough. If they were minimum wage to $10/hour people, then they'd likely get both to top them up to poverty level. If they didn't work those 40 qualifying quarters, they'd only get SSI and that tops out at a bit more than $8K per year.
WOW. SSI is below poverty level. Who could live on that amount.
To be eligible for SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program):
'Households may have $2,250 in countable resources, such as a bank account, or $3,250 in countable resources if at least one person is age 60 or older, or is disabled.'
that's straight from SNAP's website. So you have to be dirt poor in terms of savings.
(they do allow you to own a house, just not to have savings over the above amounts)
Thanks for looking this up - I think people think that as long as you don't have a salary you can qualify for SNAP and other programs even if you have $100k in your accounts (or $5k!). So sure, if you don't have anything but a beat up car and a roof over your head you can get into some of these programs but you'll be living hand to mouth with none of your own security in the form of meaningful savings allowed.
This. It's getting to the point where being poor isn't so bad. I know a guy who works for $9 an hour at Walmart, He gets section 8, food stamps, medicaid, food from the food bank, Obama phone, etc. The money he makes at Walmart goes to buying weed and other luxuries. The middle class person has to pay for all their own stuff as well as others.
Section 8 isn't just live rent free, it subsidizes housing so the family doesn't pay more than 30% of their income on rent. You can't just have a job and section 8 voucher while using all your income for luxuries, since some of that job money has to go to rent.
There is no such thing as an Obama phone. There is a Lifeline program that has been around since 1984, it has expanded to include cell phones. It provides a benefit to lower income people by subsidizing phone services, current info here: https://www.fcc.gov/general/lifeline...come-consumers and while some providers do include free (very basic) phones the monthly benefit is only $9.25 per month for voice/data.
SNAP calculator is here: Benefits Plus SNAP Calculator | Benefits Plus assuming your buddy makes $9/hour, 25 hours per week, 50 weeks per year he'd qualify for about $49 in food stamps. Woohoo, shall it be lobster or black truffles this evening?
What about getting to Walmart to work? Utilities? Car insurance? Gas? He spends all his money on luxuries but doesn't have to spend any on those necessities?
I'm pretty skeptical this cat uses all their money for weed/luxuries, and while "isn't so bad" is subjective I sure wouldn't envy needing to actually hold a crappy job while still needing to show up at food banks planning on eating whatever happens to come in the paper bag that day.
I'm very lucky in that my husband has always been very supportive about helping out my mother. She's got a long history of pretty much being subsidized one way or another by either me, or my sister, has come to depend on it and assumes it will always be there. It's hard as she's tended to make poor choices, and expected that we would save her from the financial and other consequences of those choices. And I always done the best I could as I can't see my mother living under a bridge.
But, we have set limits on her dependence on us, as she doesn't recognize boundaries on her own. One of those is that she cannot live with us (been there done that, with both us and my sister, and let's just say no one was happy with those arrangements), especially since our retirement home is smaller than the house we lived in when she lived with us, she wouldn't have the privacy or space she demands, and our adult daughter already lives with us. We're also retired, and while we're very comfortable financially, we figure we have to also set a limit on how much we can give her so we don't end up running out of money. So far she's been ok with that. Would be unfortunate if she wasn't, because that's it.
Boundaries are very important in any household combining otherwise independent adults. This includes parents moving in with kids and adult kids moving into the parents house. Or several adults sharing a house. The hard thing is sometimes parents have mental difficulties, and sometimes it may come down to who matters more, the parent who dominates the household, or the family which is being stressed and maybe broken. And sometimes by then the family isn't equipped to handle things like this.
I'm not talking about parents who are aware of their location and have managable health conditions. My grandmother had a stroke, and my aunt and uncle took her in and she just lived as part of the family, and improved vastly before she died in her sleep a year later. Up to the end, if she could do it she insisted on it.
Then there is my dad. Mom died very suddenly, and he didn't know how to cope. I was just about to find a good, real professional job. Dad announced that now I could take care of him.
My job took a lot of hours, and I needed to decompress. Dad managed during the day, but we'd always been so much alike that it didn't take much to start an argument. I found myself stopping somewhere to get dinner so it would be peaceful. It wasn't doing either of us any good. A friend and I got an apartment, and he announced he was selling the house and moving to Vegas.
We had a last dinner together. It was Christmas, and despite the stuff, like Dad driving by the apartment to see if any guys were there. And his seeing my boyfriend and fiance as the enemy, I felt sad. But I'd call. Dad would go into meandering tales, and ask who I was. My aunt and uncle went to visit and were worried.
But he got very sick, which was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mentally he forgot his life. We got him back where the family lived. My aunt and uncle, and myself visited as long as he knew who we were. But it was a blessing when he died, though he'd long before forgotten his life and family and even his name.
I feel sad that somehow, Dad an I were never able to make peace and just accept that we loved and didn't own each other. Or maybe we did at that dinner. But Dad and I living together without frequent sparks, or Mom being able to step inbetween was never going to work. I see now that I understood my dad very well, since I am my dad. I have a very good relationship with my fatherinlaw too, and he's almost a second father. I know better now, though and what not to mention. And while it may seem odd, the *distance* helps keep things peacefu.
His health is fragile, and he may not have more than a few years, or could go tomorrow. I still can't quite wrap my mind around that. He's always been there for me and I will feel very alone.
I'm going to be 65 this year and worry about later, and myself. My son already wanted to have me move in. I said no since there is no reason to need to, and he and his wife are just starting out and the door is still open to do that later. It's even likely later. But when its time. Before that, I'd like to talk about how everyone feels about it. But I don't want things to go like with Dad. I love that his family has already made her mother a part of theirs and has a tradition of drawing family near. It isn't now, but I know there will come a day.
still proudly insistant about doing what she could. My dad gave up after mom's sudden death, and he started talking about how I would take care of him now. Problem was, I'd finally gotten my professional job and was finishing the last few college classes for my AA. I was so lucky, given work and responsibility someone with much more experience normally got, but I shined. Dad wasn't even proud, just put out that I couldn't be home all the time.
He was getting worse. And then suddenly he announced he was selling the house and moving to Vegas.
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