I’m getting SSDI in the United States and a $35 ACP credit for my phone and WiFi bill.
I don’t get SNAP Medicaid or HUD housing assistance. I have Medicare health insurance but I pay a monthly premium for that. As far as SSDI goes my lawyer said I paid for the disability insurance when I worked and paid my Social Security taxes. So I don’t really consider that a handout.
Right now I’m getting food assistance from the Salvation Army and Food Bank. I gave the Salvation Army all my financial info in person so I know they are real.
Anyway what are your thoughts about this? In my mind private charities are better than the government assistance.
I get SSDI, so yes? We don’t qualify for any assistance, though. If I ever needed food, there is a place that would help us, but we’ve never had to go.
I guess some consider SSDI assistance, but my understanding was they took premiums out of my paycheck in the form of Social Security taxes I paid. For those not in the USA, SSDI = Social Security Disability Insurance.
Yes, I know people on SSI and SNAP don’t get much at all. Then the government controls whether you work or not and everything else. But maybe that’s a little too political saying that.
I get SSDI and food stamps ($125/mo), adult public assistance ($153/mo), and housing assistance (pays $840/mo). Sometimes I use the food bank. I have Medicare and Medicaid. I couldn’t live independently without the assistance from these programs, I’d be homeless or in jail.
I’ve been on government assistance for a long time now. I think I get SSDI, SNAP, and I think I might get both medicare and medicaid. I’ve signed up as an organ donor, and I think they might cut you a little slack on your medical bills if you’ve done that. I’m wondering how many of my organs will still be good when I die. I feel kind of guilty for being on the dole, and people think that because I have done a few pushups in the past I should be working. I still look kind of beefy. There are things getting in the way, though. My body has trouble handling any kind of stress from the weather because I’m on antipsychotic medications. I get drenched in sweat if I just scratch my nose. And I have seen other people where I live who did things that are far more relevant to the workplace that what I can do. One time I saw a guy glance at some instructions and put together a bar b que grill in record time. I have trouble with that kind of thing.
I worry too about what people think of me taking handouts. My grandfather preached “Rugged Individualism” and you weren’t a real man if took handouts. He’s passed away now, so maybe I need to change what he preached to me when I was a kid and teenager.
Herbert Hoover coined the term Rugged Individualism. He was the US President when the Great Depression started in 1929. Just giving him credit as the author.
Me neither. I live in a shed, sorta like a small cabin, i run an extention cord from a families house. I have no running water, bathroom or kitchen. And even then it’s hard to get by on the amount i get.
Have you applied for medicaid? I am on SSDI,food stamps (probably getting kicked off next month), medicaid, medicare, and i get a $30 internet credit. My medicaid pays for my medicare. Most of my essentials are paid for and i work part time for the rest.
Its really difficulties in living with this illness. In India there are not any disability money. But food guarantee are here. Poor people recieve rice and wheat etc. In India 800 million people recieving free food by primeminester mr Modi ji.
But on the other hand these people sell their food items, and drink local wine by it. This is fact.
I guess what’s bothering me is my grandfather’s belief you aren’t a real man if you take handouts. I know it’s sexist to think that. It’s old school stuff that I was taught that the man should have a job, work, and support his family. I could say more about his beliefs but it would probably rile people up. I’m a failure in his eyes.
I tried to get his approval and had a weekend job when I was 14, then worked weekends along with a full-time job during the summer after I turned 16.
I guess I should discuss this with my therapist.
I have no clue of why my grandfather frowned on government assistance, but private charities were more acceptable. But any assistance was undesirable.
I know how you feel. The cost of living in low here along with the politics of the state I live. Auto insurance is really expensive here. It was cheaper when I lived in the Albany, NY general area. Food is more expensive here too.