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I have encountered a person who, with her children of various fathers (I won't tell you the number to avoid possibly pointing out to someone specific, but I'll just say the number of children was uncommonly large) lived on SSI, in economically depressed rural area. She is s getting SSI and child benefits on account of her cognitive disability. I did not ask her anything more complex than ordinary questions, but in ordinary conversation she seemed perfectly normal. Everything about her appeared to be average, except the number of kids. So that is the level of "disability" for which you can get SSI.
NO One gets SSI on a cognitive disability if they have an average IQ. You can’t determine IQ by talking to someone. I spent 30 years in the disability field testing and evaluating clients. If someone has a below average IQ there’s no way they can manage a job on top of kids and other responsibilities. If she didn’t have kids to care for she might have been able to work in a supported employment position which includes specific supports.
In addition people with a lower IQ frequently aren’t able to learn to drive so rely on public transportation. Depending on how good it is imagine trying to get kids to school or daycare and then to work and then reverse it daily. Difficult at best for someone with an average intelligence. Convincing her to use birth control would be a big help.
Someone with that level of intelligence often struggles to understand how to properly take care of their children and perform daily tasks such as grocery shopping, budgeting, etc. The person in this situation is not lazy nor should they be envied. It’s a sad situation.
NO One gets SSI on a cognitive disability if they have an average IQ. You can’t determine IQ by talking to someone. I spent 30 years in the disability field testing and evaluating clients. If someone has a below average IQ there’s no way they can manage a job on top of kids and other responsibilities. If she didn’t have kids to care for she might have been able to work in a supported employment position which includes specific supports.
In addition people with a lower IQ frequently aren’t able to learn to drive so rely on public transportation. Depending on how good it is imagine trying to get kids to school or daycare and then to work and then reverse it daily. Difficult at best for someone with an average intelligence. Convincing her to use birth control would be a big help.
Someone with that level of intelligence often struggles to understand how to properly take care of their children and perform daily tasks such as grocery shopping, budgeting, etc. The person in this situation is not lazy nor should they be envied. It’s a sad situation.
Okay, I'll say how many kids she had: nine (9). How can taxpayers be asked to support that? She clearly had a normal concept of money, and had it been made clear to her that she would not receive any additional money for additional kids, and/or if the kids were taken from her in foster care on account of her cognitive disability being such that she "struggles to understand how to properly take care" of them (though it seemed to me that she had no problem understanding that or anything else in ordinary life), maybe THAT would have "convinced her to use birth control". It was quite clear, though, that she saw the kids as a status symbol, and since she was encouraged by the society's willingness to pay her more for producing more kids, then why not?
There are several topics going on right now in the Retirement forum, all seemingly converging on the same discussion on how to provide for comfortable life in retirement without working (or without working very long) for it.
But at least the point I was trying to make in every one of the threads is: if your income is very small (say, just SSI), why do you focus on ways of extorting more $ from people who work (or have worked) hard, rather than on creative ways of making yourself happy with the little that you have? Let's talk about that: ways in which a US senior living on a shoestring can create personal happiness.
PS- In case you can't make sense of the title of this thread, it paraphrases this song :
stephen stills love the one you're with lyrics https://g.co/kgs/C6Be4e
You don't make sense. No one is extorting anyone. People on SSI are disabled . It's very difficult, in general, to qualify for SSI.
SSI rate is too low for anyone to eat and have shelter. Not to mention they disallow saving $ so if the disabled get lucky inheriting $100k let's say, then all but $60 is taken from them.Xmas money taken from them, all but $60 per month. Laws need changing regarding the resource limit and the monthly rate needs a huge increase
January 1, 2023 the Federal benefit rate is $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple.
Last edited by TruckeeTami; 11-23-2023 at 11:37 PM..
You don't make sense. No one is extorting anyone. People on SSI are disabled . It's very difficult, in general, to qualify for SSI.
SSI rate is too low for anyone to eat and have shelter. Not to mention they disallow saving $ so if the disabled get lucky inheriting $100k let's say, then all but $60 is taken from them.Xmas money taken from them, all but $60 per month. Laws need changing regarding the resource limit and the monthly rate needs a huge increase
January 1, 2023 the Federal benefit rate is $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple.
SSI is too low for anyone to eat and get shelter, but not too low to have 9 kids?
Medicaid health insurance coverage is free. Food is not a part of the cost because it is covered with food stamps. In all but 6 states there is also some state supplement to federal SSI. Disabled and aged people (ie, same people who get SSI) have a priority for subsidized apartments, where they pay only 1/3 of their income (ie of their SSI check) for rent. Wait lists for subsidized apartments are very short (or none) in some locations in the country. While people wait, they can split rent with roommates (where the rent for a trailer averages below $700 per month nationally, or below $350 per person if the trailer is shared with a roommate). There are free cellphone plans for destitute people. Public transportation is substantially discounted or in some cases free. Public library is free.
Since healthcare and food and cellphone are free, the only mandatory basic expense for a person on SSI is in fact the rent, which is about 1/3 of the SSI check for a subsidized apartment or if splitting a trailer rent with a roommate. It is not a luxury, but it is doable.
The entire cost of life for a person on SSI is covered by people who work to earn money, and that money is gifted to people on SSI. Bear that detail in mind.
You don't make sense. No one is extorting anyone. People on SSI are disabled . It's very difficult, in general, to qualify for SSI.
SSI rate is too low for anyone to eat and have shelter. Not to mention they disallow saving $ so if the disabled get lucky inheriting $100k let's say, then all but $60 is taken from them.Xmas money taken from them, all but $60 per month. Laws need changing regarding the resource limit and the monthly rate needs a huge increase
January 1, 2023 the Federal benefit rate is $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple.
I think people who get SSDI get what they would get at full retirement age. SSI I think is a different program and less dollars.
You don't make sense. No one is extorting anyone. People on SSI are disabled . It's very difficult, in general, to qualify for SSI.
SSI rate is too low for anyone to eat and have shelter. Not to mention they disallow saving $ so if the disabled get lucky inheriting $100k let's say, then all but $60 is taken from them.Xmas money taken from them, all but $60 per month. Laws need changing regarding the resource limit and the monthly rate needs a huge increase
January 1, 2023 the Federal benefit rate is $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple.
Don’t bother to try to reason with the OP. She was poor and made it financially and so can everyone else as far as she’s concerned. Never mind that she’s a doctor so definitely is smarter than the average bear. But she will argue that the janitor at her hospital saved for retirement and has a great life.
She’s like the Grinch resentful of every dime that goes to poor people to keep them from freezing to death or starving. Of course she will argue that never happens in the USA. She has made up her mind as to her own reality and doesn’t allow the facts to get in the way.
Having spent my career helping people with disabilities obtain employment and I realize life is a combination of one’s own efforts and what happens to you outside your control. I have seen some heartbreaking situations and am grateful that isn’t my life. I don’t kid myself that everything is under my control.
I have a question - which European country disintegrated to the point of citizens being stateless during the last 50 years or so?
Yugoslavia. It fell apart in 1992 and turned into several different independent countries battling with each other for new borders, new governments, different languages and even different religions. Parts of it were in chaos. People became homeless and were killed in some areas. Many became refugees. The Serbian part has been a hot spot for centuries, being at least part of the cause of WWI.
Last edited by marino760; 11-24-2023 at 11:34 AM..
Yugoslavia. It fell apart in 1992 and turned into several different independent countries battling with each other for new borders, new governments, different languages and even different religions. Parts of it were in chaos. People became homeless and were killed in some areas. Many became refugees. The Serbian part has been a hot spot for centuries, being at least part of the cause of WWI.
Amazingly, some people in this forum actually know about things in the world beyond 5 miles around their home :-). Was that other poster trying to say that there was no war in Europe, or redrawing of country borders, in the past 50 years? :-) Hello, there is one such war going on even as we speak...
Btw, during the breakup of Yugoslavia (pop. 22 million) in the 1990s, about 4 million people were displaced from home, and about 40 thousand were killed.
Don’t bother to try to reason with the OP. She was poor and made it financially and so can everyone else as far as she’s concerned. Never mind that she’s a doctor so definitely is smarter than the average bear. But she will argue that the janitor at her hospital saved for retirement and has a great life.
She’s like the Grinch resentful of every dime that goes to poor people to keep them from freezing to death or starving. Of course she will argue that never happens in the USA. She has made up her mind as to her own reality and doesn’t allow the facts to get in the way.
Having spent my career helping people with disabilities obtain employment and I realize life is a combination of one’s own efforts and what happens to you outside your control. I have seen some heartbreaking situations and am grateful that isn’t my life. I don’t kid myself that everything is under my control.
I don't consider your posts as "reasoning" :-).
If you are getting something from other people as a free gift, it is not a matter of how much you want, but of how much they want to give you as a gift. More than that is extortion or theft.
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