How Are People Surviving on SSI?

Post Reply New Topic

The poll is based on the living expenses of an adult who receives no other income or financial support (such as sharing rent); if that's not your situation, please try to estimate the costs.

I just looked up the rates for SSI. Here in California, the monthly payment is $877.40 for a single disabled adult who is not blind. Minimum rent in this area is $800. I'm wondering how I'm going to live if I'm approved for SSI.

You'll have to move somewhere where the cost of living is lower, like anywhere but California.

You'll also have to look for subsidized housing (some apartments cover water & trash utilities in your rent), apply for HUD assistance (waiting list), and SNAP (food stamps) and locate the food banks in your neighborhood. You won't be able to afford a vehicle, even an old one that's paid for, because you won't be able to keep it insured.

Hope you like Ramen noodles and generic hot dogs, 'cause those will be the central staple of your grocery list.

There may also be agencies locally who assist those with limited incomes with utility bills, but you usually have to apply for those month by month, first come, first served until they run out of funding.

You can work part-time under certain circumstances without affecting your SSI, but any money you make will affect HUD, SNAP and most other forms of assistance, so in the long run, you won't benefit from working at all, except to get out of the house and keep busy. You are not allowed to ever have more than $2000 in assets on hand at any given time. Once you're on the dole, they want you to STAY on the dole. Start making money to better your situation and you will be penalized.

I don't think it's intended to cover the cost of living alone. If I have to go on SSI, I accept the reality that I'll need to live with roommates (which is what I've always done anyway).

Yes, living with other people is hard when you're autistic, but it's a roof over your head. And even in California, $800 is enough to rent a room in a decent neighborhood, as long as you live very frugally.

Move to the far northern part of CA, someplace like Redding or Eureka. Those towns have quite low rents for CA, last time I checked you could rent a studio apt in Redding for $400. The downside is all the meth addicts who live there, if you have lots of electronics it might be worthwhile to cover your windows with opaque fabric and keep your mouth shut, and don't associate with the neighbors. If you move out of state your CA state funded part of SSI will go away, and that is a couple hundred bucks.

I live in a City in the Central Valley, my rent is only $495 (I actually worked and now am on SSDI) but I voted NO due to the question asking does it provide SAFE housing, the neighborhoods I have managed to find housing in are really not considered that safe. Where I live now is a downtown area. I know some people get lower rent by having room mates, I found that to be a worse experience, every time I tried this they either attacked me or stole or cheated me, or in some manner have taken advantage of me. Very much lowered my opinion of NT people and safety around them.

I'm not on ssi and live with my mother but if my mother was gone even if I had ssi I couldn't live on it. I figure I'd need a minimum of $1200 a month to just pay for the basics of rent, utilities, phone/internet, and food. Even if I found a cheaper apartment I still probably wouldn't get enough to live.

I think it would probably require getting a housing voucher/public housing support, or living with a roommate. There might be a few apartments or SRO type lodgings that exist somewhere in the US that are cheap enough to not need housing support or a roommate, though I haven't seen a regular apartment listed for say 200 a month in a several years. Another option that is probably fairly common is living in trailer parks, which I suspect can be really cheap.

I picked YES because I live in Ontario, Canada and get like $1200/month. I get 100$ extra each month for my celiac disease because it has a special diet. Apartments there sound like apartments here where I live specifically, for price. I would be absolutely terrified to be me living in the US.

This is the first time I am posting here and I don't want to disrupt the maturity in this forum as I am only twenty five. However I feel I have some experience in this area, I voted yes but only if you know how to do it. Having income based housing is a must and its probably best you don't have a car to save money. Its tight but it is possible, don't expect to be saving a lot of money though, Its very much paycheck to paycheck. Minimizing bills is essential, I only pay for rent, internet, netflix, skype monthly; if you get into income based housing, utilities are normally included. Feel free to ask me questions but I might be biased a bit, I get both SSI and SSDI.

You would need to find assisted housing or low income or section 8. You would also have to look into other programs for people with low income that help pay for your phone and electric, transportation (I am sure they have special passes for people with disabilities), and there is foodstamps. You can also work part time but look into how much money you can make before it affects your SSI benefits.

Here in holland, we have rent support for those who earn under a certain threshold after taxes, which SSI qualifies for.
This means that a rent of $800 will go down to around $350, leaving half of the SSI income to live from.

Perhaps look into subsidized housing, like Section 8 or whatever they have there that allows for people on SSI to pay minimal rent. But outside of that I think the only real options are room-mates or move in with some family and split rent and even then you'll need Food Stamps, though it wont be much.

I am starting to think SSI is not meant as an amount you can live on. Which is kind of screwy being its for people who are unable to make a living working due to disability. Then again there's a lot of working people who aren't doing much better financially so we're not the only ones getting the short end of the stick.

It was originally designed by taking the average of old age social security benefits, but the cost of living adjustments didn't follow inflation of housing prices, only the prices of a limited basket of foods. Its also meant that older seniors have not seen their social security checks keep up with inflation either. Like the past year or two there has been no cost of living increase, while most things have gone up in price by 5%, with the exception of gasoline.

I have ssdi and make more than most others but still not enough to live alone without government housing.

No, I cannot survive on SSI alone. I rent a room from my parents and have been waiting on a list for public housing for a long time now. I am nervous about moving out. Covering bills will be really tight.

Depends.I keep my food expenses down by growing a garden.Not an option for apartment dwellers.Defenitly something all should do of they have a piece of tillable ground.It amazing what amount of food can be grown on a small space.My problem is unexpected expenses.My car radiator has a hole and I can't fix it till the first.I could ask family to help but I don't like to do that.Not that it really matters right now,no money for gas either.lol
I'm always broke the last part of the month but as long as the bills are paid and the animals and I have food it's ok.
Living expenses are really cheap in my state so that helps.There are also some programs that help with energy expenses in the summer and winter.