What's your annual income (in U.S. dollars, before tax)?

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Nothing.. I just got out of school and am searching for a job. I'm getting help job-searching from, uhm.. something. SSI or DVR or both or something. Or I'll get money from SSI if I do something related to DVR, and also they're going to help with the job. It's all very complicated.

I too make a cozy salary being good at math and science and being a software developer.

I'm making more with my own business than I ever did as an employee, happier too, but I think this is the experience with many people in business, NT or otherwise.

I am a single parent of a diagnosed son with Asperger's. I think he's HFA but whatever. He receives SSI which enables me to work slightly less than full time. As a single parent, I think he needs more time with an involved parent than he needs things. Even so, I am well under the poverty level at $15,000 per year. I have been told by professional mental health workers that I qualify for disability because of diagnosed Major Depressive Disorder but I think I can work on some level and ironically I get depressed if I don't work. I believe myself to be somewhere on the spectrum but do not have the resources for a professional diagnosis. I wish I had ability in the maths and sciences but my Executive Dysfunction really hampers me.

I take it that disability is the "welfare" option?

Maggiedoll wrote:

I technically work full time
What do you think SSI for children is for?
I am his beneficiary payee because he is 11 years old.
It also provides him with medical care and the medications that allow him to be mainstreamed.

OK I'm kind of pissed. See ya.

you have to take the city into account as well. In the UK you would get 50% more doing the same job in the centre of london as in manchester. I imagine this would be the same if you compared say buffalo to manhattan.

I understand you being annoyed at the implication that being on social assistance due to disability (for an adult or adult with disabled child) is akin to welfare. I think that bone fide disability claims are very underpaid in my province/country. It is not like the qualifying disabaled person CAN work full time in most cases - it is because the disability is preventing full engagement in the workforce.

As for parents with a child with a disability, it definately is a full time job to care for any child - especially one with a disability. You need that money which is provided on behalf of your child to help them meet their needs. The annoying thing is that, if you were a FOSTER PARENT caring for a child with a disability, you would get much, much more than a biological parent caring for a child with a disability!! !! ! This is outrageous (I have heard of foster caregivers getting upwards of $4,000 per month, while a biological parent of the child would be entitled to around $600 per month - WTF!!). The biological parent would gladly take HALF the amount that would be given to a foster caregiver ($2,000) so that they could get their child the support they need and live above the poverty line and have some dignity.

Anyways, public policies like this really get my knickers in a knot. It is better to support families of children with disabilities than to pay MORE for non-family members to provide support. GRRRrrrrrr.

Anyways, I will step off my soap box now.

I just wanted to make a note that I emphasize with your situation and hope that you know that others on WP really support parents of children with disabilities.

Thank you CanadianRose I appreciate it. I have even heard of biological parents giving up their children in order for them to have these better services under the foster care system. I think that is really tragic.

Wait, um, I'm confused..
There's not a "disability" option in the poll, and disability is government support. I'm on SSI, and if someone knows it, they tend to treat me as though I'm worthless. I had this problem with the psychiatrists I saw before my mother started paying for me to see a private psychiatrist just to keep me on my meds..

I didn't mean to say anything offensive when I said "I take it disability is the welfare option".. I just meant that it's government benefits and there's no option in the poll to say separately state being on disability. I didn't mean to say that you don't work, Aimless.. I didn't mean to say anything at all about you or make any judgment at all besides to state that there's no "I'm on disability" option on the poll.

Okay, I apologize for jumping to conclusions. I read sarcasm when it wasn't there.

Lucky enough to get a job in a field which is sharing one of my restricted interests. Thus i make more money than most people my age. But over the past 10 years I've worked for probably 4 of those years. I'd be perfectly happy making half my income if I worked half as much. But that won't fly in this society. It's a personal time thing.

I think I lucked out though. As my interview consisted not only of a lot of technical questions (Software developer, questions about my ability) but also ... believe or not... riddles. I'm a huge riddle fan and great at solving problems so I got every single one they threw at me within seconds. Then at the end of the interview I pulled my own riddle against them - they were stumped for weeks. I told them "I'll tell ya the answer when you call me!"

Later they told me they weren't actually even hiring at the time for my position, but made room for me in the company on the single fact that "I had the audacity to do what I did". If I were an NT, perhaps I would've thought that pulling the stunt I did was "inappropriate".

I guess every thing goes both ways.

I think I didn't say it particularly well. I was a bit baffled that there wasn't a disability option in the poll, considering that most aspies have trouble holding a job.

I made a big old buttheaded assumption because your post came directly after mine. I should have asked first before I got all huffy.

Sorry, I'm not very familiar with all the different terminology of government assistence programs. I'm sure it probably also varies from country to country, but I sort of lumped all types of government assistence into the Welfare option of the poll. I usually equate "disability payments" as something you get from your employee insurance package when you'll be off work for weeks due to some medical problem.
If there was a way to edit the poll options, I'd probably rename "Welfare" to "Government Assistence" to be more generic.

About $12,000 a year but that's at a part time job that hardly pays me anyways and I'm going to college too.