Disability's Dirty Secrets
Congratulations! You've been officially deemed disabled. Welcome to a life of luxury and ease living off the government! Wait, you mean that's not the case? You're telling me I've been misled by the internet AGAIN!!!
Yep, hate to break it to you, but disability's not all it's cracked up to be! Turns out it's much harder to qualify for this than you could ever imagine, and even if you do, you're not set for life.
Disability law has become big business in America. Why? Because nearly EVERYONE, even a paraplegic, is denied disability upon their first application. I say nearly because there are few exceptions that make the rule, but for the majority of people, even with a totally legitimate claim, they'll receive a denial. This has created a whole contingent of lawyers whose entire career is made up of helping people receive the disability benefits they need. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty messed up to me. I had a consultation with a disability lawyer last week who helped me to understand my situation. I thought I'd share that here with you so that, if nothing else, you can be a little more educated on our system.
There are two types of disability assistance that are available through our government to the general population: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Let's take a brief look at each of these and see if they could help me (or you) out!
SSDI is a division of the Social Security that you contribute to with each paycheck. Because of this, in order to qualify, you must have worked for at least 5 out of the last 10 years. More specifically, you need to have 40 credits (full-time work will typically earn you 4 credits per year) with 20 of those (five full-time years' worth) having been earned in the last ten years. I chose to be a stay-at-home mom, homeschooling my kids for 15 years. I did this without pay or any government sponsored assistance. I produced for our society four gainfully-employed, contributing adults. Unfortunately, this didn't earn me any "credits." I did these things so that my husband could focus on working and earning lots of credits, but none of those are credited to me - unless he dies. Yeah, that's not better! So, SSDI is off the table for me, but I still have thousands of dollars of medical bills each year I need to find a way to pay. What's next?
The other form of disability assistance is Supplemental Security Income (SSI). That sounds promising! How do I qualify for that? Well, you need to have no income at all and less than $3,000 in assets. Wait a minute... NO INCOME?!?!?! But wait, the website said I could earn up to $2,019. Yeah, but your benefits will be reduced $1 for every $2 you earn, so if you earn $2,000 they will take away $1,000 in benefits, netting you nothing. And are you telling me that if I even have a car in my name, I wouldn't qualify? Yep. That's the rules! Ok, so if I did qualify in these ways, I had nothing coming in and nothing in my name, then would the government take care of me?
Nope. Bad news there too. You see, even if I qualified for SSDI, the average monthly payment is only $1,580, with more than two-thirds of recipients getting less than that. SSI is even worse with the highest possible payment being $967 per month. I have been blessed with amazing insurance through my husband's former employer, but above and beyond that we spent over $16,000 out of pocket last year on healthcare. That's an average of about $1,375 per month. If I did qualify for SSDI, it would barely cover my out of pocket after insurance, which we will no longer have next year, let alone any living expenses. SSI is even more dismal. With no income and no assets, I'd only have $967 to live on, which wouldn't pay rent (which I would have to have if I couldn't have a house in my name. For comparison, average rent in my area is $1,625 for a 700 sq ft apartment), let alone any food or medical expenses at all.
Here's the Thing: I'm not sure what you've been told about the lucky people living off the government, but it's just not real. If you qualify for any form of disability benefits, and you can actually get the government to pay up, it'll barely make a dent in your actual expenses. No one is out there getting rich off of disability!
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