Psychologist says I will probably be denied SSI.

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QFT.

I have job and an education. If I put my mind to it, I can do most anything, but getting along with others is a problem I have. I'm easy, but the incompatibility with the average NT is what does me in. Getting hired at a good job is near-impossible (so far), and getting a decent job and keeping it has never happened. I too am aware of the increasing discrimination against older applicants for jobs, so I do have serious concerns about what happens as I reach 50 and might have to find a different line of work because circumstances change.

I understand why SSI is so hard to get. This is what happens when people are eager to abuse the system...those who really need it get treated like con men and more still who deserve help (and are honest) are rejected while people willing to lie get aid with no real problems.

It pisses me off to hear how there are people who don't even try and get a job or don't even work because they think they don't have to. Excuse me, SSI does not mean you don't have to work. I was even shocked when my own mother told me at 19 that there are people who abuse SSI by not trying to get a job because they think since they get free money, why work? That's just being lazy. I never even thought on my own people do that. I just assumed because I want to work and be independent, everyone else would too. People never cease to amaze me.

I have a distant online friend who lives in Montana and he is one of those people. I don't even discuss it with him because it makes me mad. I shut down in topics when it's too strong for me to handle.

Another thing that pisses me off is people refusing to get a job because they don't want to lose money from their SSI check . Jesus Christ, you get more money when you work, I don't mean from the state, I mean with your job. I got more money when I worked and my check would get cut. This is something I don't understand about people. They sound like cry baby greeds when they think this way.

Are you unable to work at all? That's what disability pensions are there for.

More like "unable to work with the current skills and support," I think. That's the position I'm in, and why I'm on SSI while I get training. If the OP lived with family, the SSI could be skipped altogether (unless the family were unable to support him).

I just wish there was more HELP in getting people a job in the first place. I would love to work, but my anxiety, extreme fear of driving, executive dysfunction and Aspergers make it hard for me to even function at home sometimes.

I have been turned down three times and each time they say there is work out there that I could do, yet they do nothing in helping me get said work. I know they don't, but it would really be a help if they could.

I have been to the places in my town where they help you get a job but I was either A) to well off or B) not well off enough. There has got to be a program to help someone like me find a job.

Or rather I wish my anxiety wasn't so bad that I get in near tears at time having to order by myself in Mcdonald's, let alone go about the process of asking fora job. It is like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I agree, but point out this.

1. Being able and willing to work at something doesn't = being able to secure and keep a job. SSI is hard enough to get when nobody will employ you and you have nothing to offer to work independently to support yourself. Quite literally, if you admit that you want to work and can do something, they won't give you benefits, even though for YEARS you've been unemployed and are pretty much unemployable. It's easier to lie and play the cripple than deal with the bureaucratic garbage they put you through for being honest.

2. You don't make more money working than being on welfare. Everyone I know who gets full welfare benefits has the state paying for food, providing medical care, utilities, and a place to live. It's not the best, but some welfare housing is nicer than what someone working at minimum wage could hope to afford. This creates an incentive for people to stay on welfare versus going out and working where they won't have it as good until they are bringing in a really nice chunk of income.

3. The welfare system cuts people off who try and work. If you get SSI and other benefits, if you work, they'll cut the benefits, and some of them, frankly, are too valuable to lose. There really is no transition from full welfare to full independence. You reach an arbitrary number (which I know first hand is way too low to sustain a single person) and you are out the door. So, if you work, you gotta do it under the table...admitting you now have a job only AFTER you are making enough to go without welfare 100%.

Welfare, ultimately, does more harm than good in how it's run.

I was never on welfare. I was on SSI only. Yes they cut my check but I still got money from them but I just never got a full one from them. So I don't undestand why it be an issue for people. We were discussing SSI, not welfare.

SSI is welfare. And I'm not proud of having to depend on it. If I could work, I would work. I have severe PTSD but the issues around autism and sensory difficulties are enough of a challenge all on their own. I don't judge people on that system because from what I've seen they know how to discriminate between those who need and those who don't. The problem is the people that need it the most sometimes have the hardest time getting it because of their socioeconomic status. What pisses me off are people who have parents who do everything for them including hook them up with welfare when there really isn't a dire need for it as opposed to other socioeconomic groups where there is and then have the audacity to sit in judgment of others on top of it all.

Okay. I was never cut off from SSI when I worked. But when I moved to Oregon I was because I made lot of money working full time finally and I didn't need them. Isn't that the point? So I still don't understand.

And it's different for people who genuinely can't work. I was talking about people who can work but they choose not to. I can work and am able to but if I were still on SSI and sitting at home doing nothing, never applying for other jobs, then I'd be abusing it.

I have an autistic friend who is on SSI and he doesn't work but he wants to so he tries to get a job by applying but not one place will call him for an interview. He is not abusing SSI. He did work as he was on it but then they cut his hours way back so he quit because he got tired of it. Now he has been trying for the past few years to get a job. He also goes to school when he can afford it. His parents can't afford it either so he can't go full time. he could get tuition but he doesn't want to be in debt by having to pay it back. Yes he has been accused of being one of those people and he would explain to him about his position and noooo they don't listen. They still think what they thought before.

Last edited by Spokane_Girl on 08 Jan 2010, 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Let's all remember we all live in different locations. Some live in places with more services and jobs, while others live where there's very little opportunity and a lot of people who can't find work. If you have fifty people applying for the same job, it's not going to be an easy job to get. That's the situation a lot of people are in. When you do find work, and it's a job that pays near minimum wage, it's going to be difficult to make ends meet with that job without some kind of support from somewhere. I knew a guy who had a job that he got thru the Department Of Rehab. They were able to get him a job he couldn't get without them and it was at a fast food restaurant, it was Part time and it was for minimum wage. As we all know, no one can support themselves with this kind of job, yet, this was the job the Department of Rehab helped him get. It's ridiculous.

If a person is categorically needy, they are obligated to apply for SSI by law.

Panhandling and bumming off the streets is illegal in many areas of the USA. For awhile, it was even illegal to be on a park bench in Santa Cruz County California.

Judges often use the evidence that someone was looking for employment as demonstrating that the person is not truthful in later claiming to be disabled.

Despite a recent Supreme Court Ruling, filing for any benefit that requires the status of being disabled precludes the requirement of being "otherwise qualified" to meet the requirements of a prima facie case of discrimination because of handicap or disability.

Most all Social Services exploit the concept of "last resort," which usually requires filing for disability before any services are even considered.

Society does not want to meet its obligation under The Social Contract to meet Human Rights requirements such as SSI, much like Insurance Companies don't want to pay for storm damages, so they call everything flood damages, while the federal definition of a flood wasn't satisfied. With social insurance requirements, life is regarded as a pre-existing condition.

The environment cannot support full employment, and the economy cannot support full employment. That's why economists try to manipulate the money supply to maintain an ideal and stable unemployment rate (Greenspan always wanted one between 6% and 8%), while not counting many people in the job market by labeling them, and purposively removing them from working, with such words as retired and/or disabled, which somewhat satisfies The Social Contract.

Not working doesn't make you lazy, anymore than working at a job that pays twenty-dollars a heartbeat makes a billionaire lazy.

Some gates have an arch that proclaims "Work Will Set You Free." Work will not set you free, and elsewhere, how did so many enjoyable things become required punishments in School, in work, and in Capitalism?

Tadzio

Well, you just met an exception to the rule, then. I pay my own rent and utilities, and while I do get medical care from the state, that amounts to (for a twenty-six-year-old) nothing more than glasses, yearly checkups, dental cleanings, and medication that costs something like $3 a month (my school handles counseling and personal assistance services). I do get food stamps, but the money is not enough to eat whatever I like. I have to be very careful how I spend it, and I am currently trying to deal with a diet that is too low in protein--a problem that is apparently uncommon in the US, where most people eat too much meat rather than not being able to afford any at all (I make heavy use of eggs, yogurt, beans and peanut butter).

Last summer, I worked at an internship that paid $10 an hour. The internship was specifically tailored for disabled people and I had support for every aspect of it; so I was able to work nearly forty hours a week. $10 an hour is close to minimum wage, but the overall wages were something like triple my disability income amount. Last summer, while working, I was able to go out to eat regularly. I bought about ten new outfits of clothing, in the "business casual" style expected of us at work. I had enough money to eat meat whenever I wanted. I even bought some used computer games. My standard of living increased to about the level of the average graduate student--which is to say, I had everything I needed and some of what I wanted. I felt ridiculously rich and I was so used to living on so little that I had a great deal of money left at the end of the summer to pay my school bills.

The idea that living on disability is easy is, at least in my area, ridiculous. SSI is not an easy life. It's way below the poverty line, and even if you count government assistance food and medical insurance, is equivalent to only about two-thirds of what you would get working full-time at minimum wage. That's not even all of it--I'm lucky. In my area, rent is affordable. There are disabled people who are homeless because the waiting lists for government housing are two years long and the rent in their area is literally more than their entire monthly income. It's not as though you just go in and get a free ride, either. I have to turn in my bank statements every month, tell them exactly what money I have and where. They have had me sign releases to communicate with every other agency that's working with me. During the approval process, they even interviewed my friends. When you are on SSI, your life is public property.

Other people may see living on next to nothing as an "incentive" to stay on welfare, but I sure don't see it.

I'm on SSI and SSDI and no one interviewed any of my family or friends. The only releases are between government agencies themselves. IE HUD housing and DHHS.

Is it an easy life? Absolutely not. However I do have to agree that for those people that are abusing the system, in many areas of the US you get more from welfare than you do a job. Consider how many people are unable to even find or keep a job. Its not just those without a college degree either. Its people with degrees. People who are thousands of dollars in debt from college, who can't even get a job in their field at all, so they're reduced to working at Mcdonalds.

Working while on SSDI or SSI is a gigantic catch 22. You truly are damned if you do and damned if you don't on any type of social welfare. You money goes up and down and its a huge balancing act. Cost of living goes up one year, so your SSI check goes up $7. Well then your rent increases. Rent increases? Well that means your food stamps go up now. Have a baby? Your TANF increases, and your food stamps increase. Oops, your rent goes up because of the added income. Welfare is MADE to keep you below the poverty line. You can't ever get just a little bit ahead.

if that's not true then why did I get more money?


Let's see. If I wasn't working, I would be getting $623 a month here in Oregon. When I was working, I was making over S1100 a month after taxes and I got none from SSI. See more money I got.

When I lived in Montana, I was working and I made between $200 something to $300 something and I rarely got over $400 dollars in paycheck. However, I still got $300 something or $400 something from SSI depending on what I made. See, more money still.
Without work, I would have been getting $500 something alone from SSI. That be my only income. But with work, I got more money even if I got less from SSI.

So how can anyone say you don't get more?

Someone explain if I am still wrong. How is this not more money you get?

So I don't understand why people want to not have their SSI checks cut. Because from my experiance I got more money with work. I still think people are just being cry babies and being greedy.

If SSI paid me $1500 a month, then of course it be more money I'd be getting if I don't work because with work, I'd be making less with my job. But they never give out that much money to people. I have never heard of anyone who got that much. And if they were going to give you zero dollars if you worked full time, then yeah I can see why people not want to work if that was possible. But if they still got money from them and it would still be over $1500 total with their work and what they got from SSI, then I don't see why they wouldn't want to work.

If it's full-time or well-paid part-time then it's probably going to be more than your SSI check. Yes, you'll stop getting the SSI check, but you're probably going to get around twice as much if you're working. If you're not too far over the SSI amount, or if you haven't had that full time job for more than a year or two (forget the exact time but it's at least a year), you'll keep your Medicaid. Food stamps are income-based and most people who work minimum-wage jobs can get them; those whose jobs pay more don't need them.

If you have a part-time job that pays less than your SSI would, you still get more if you work. That's because having a part-time job doesn't make you ineligible for SSI, so you don't lose your SSI check. The SSI check decreases by about $50 to $80 less than your paycheck, so that you are getting about $50 to $80 more per month when you work. And you definitely keep food stamps and Medicaid.

Either way, working pays better. Plus, there are programs where you can get training for work, everything from a job coach to a GED to a college degree; and you can often set up an arrangement whereby some of the income you get is exempt from being deducted from your SSI check, if you can prove you are putting it towards making yourself employable. If you know how to work the system, you can often get yourself a lot of help with getting a job... I know, 'cause I did it last summer and I am going to do it again, maybe permanently with a bachelor's degree, maybe just until I go to grad school (no, they don't pay for grad school but you can TA and get through it that way)...

You can go to the social security web site and read up on all these laws, if you're interested. Check the PASS program, which is the income exemption thing I mentioned.

The rules change dramatically when you add SSDI with SSI.
The rules change again if you're married.
The rules change yet again if your spouse is also on SSDI or SSI.
Add that to the endless hoops to jump through and the reporting you have to do, for some people that alone is too much.

I promise its not as simple as running a math equation.

Yes, if you had an awesome job you would make more than SSDI or SSI. However that would entail being educated for an awesome job, being able to get an awesome job, and keeping said awesome job. All things that are very difficult for some people. Heck its difficult for NT's where I live to get ANY job, let alone someone with AS. The stability people get from being on SSDI or SSI is whats important.

(and please remember that some people get an SSI check, but its technically considered disability.. that means they didn't have enough job credits to qualify for SSDI but because they are disabled and below the poverty line they can receive SSI. )