Right now about half the nation relies on government help. And about 46.6 million or about 7 percent of the population rely on food stamps. And this group includes many if not most with Autism Specrum conditions as well as other disabilities.
Let's start with Social Security. There are different forms. Regular benefits with at least five years work experience, regular SSDI (or DAC (Disabled Adult Child) benefits for disabled individuals, and DAC (Disabled Adult Child) Benefits on a deceased parent's income, which I currently have. My mom passed away in 1996, so I am fortunate to get the 907.00/month I get. Others without a deceased parent usually have around 7 or 800.00/month or less. These funds have to cover one's rent portion, Utilities, my phone, cable and my storage. After my bills I get 100.00 twice a month on a better month. That is max. It has been as little as 30.00. Try squeezing all your needs into that. We also need to shop with a calculator, which we don't deserve to be stuck with either. Now, I intend to do without my storage eventually ( I was going to this Summmer with a provider's help, but I lost the provider), and my phone and cable could be lower, but why should they. I have the right to possess these valuable productivities. The government sees these as "luxuries". I can't function without my phone, both for stimming and business purposes. I need my cable so I can watch my TV and have my internet for something to do. 2 other cases in point are contact lenses versus glasses and government phones. Contact lenses are used to see right, just as glasses are. So what gives. They are viewed as cosmetic. But some are more comfortable with them as opposed to glasses, so we should be able to have them. Yet, services like White Bird and the Lions Club don't cover them. We get about 20 pairs of mostly ugly glasses to choose from. We deserve to have rhinestones, etc. because we have the right to a nice appearance. I managed to find one pair with a half-decent design with Whitebird. Through the Lions Club I was given a pair that didn't last a month before they had to be repaired. Whitebird ones are still holding out fortunately.
Along with disability benefits, we have Medicare and OMAP. I had Trillium for mental health services only. In order to qualify for my free Gym membership, I had to change to Trillium Medicare Advantage, which is just as good, but should have had to change to be able to qualify for the Gym? I think not. I also need boots for the lymph edema in my legs, but I don't qualify because it is not the result of a medical issue, etc. It' crazy. Just plain ridiculous.
Government phones come without texting or internet because the government views them as luxuries. But others view them as productivities and will tell you they cannot function without the internet on their phones. Why is the government so common sense-blind?
Next HUD. There are limited choices for places to live. This is because we have a set rent amount we can't go over as well as other stupid reasons. I greatly need washer and dryer hookups and a dishwasher/Garbage Disposal, but I could not find it. Most places with those commodities either have huge wait lists, rents too high, or don't allow HUD people do to the high amount of required paper work HUD requires that they fill out or they think HUD clients are dirty and ratty. I had to live quite far from the University, which I was attending, due to those complexes near the University not allowing HUD people. Again, not fair. We need more options. I also have a right to a garden and more pets, which I can't have in this 560 square-foot apartment. I have a service pet (my cat), but another pet is an additional 25.00/month. And in this complex we are also being exploited. They force us to pay more money (raise our rent) if we don't sign a lease. So, you have issues like this also. Complex upkeep may not be the best in come cases either. Fortunately the two swimming pools we have are an unusual bonus. And our upkeep improved some after we got new managers. Also with HUD I can only have an unauthorized person stay in my apartment for a maximum of 14 days. We also have to stay in a complex at least a year before we can move out again.
Food Stamps. Right now Oregon leads the nation in SNAP Benefit use and child hunger. In Lane County alone nearly 90K people rely on Food Stamps. This is really sad and desperately needs to be rectified. The max benefit amount is 200.00 per month for a single person if you have almost no income and/or you pay medical bills. And TANF benefits are only open to families and include a cash card which covers almost anything. Why the heck can't SNAP be this way. It is just plain unfairness. Or as the Germans would say, Ungerechtigkeit! I am on maximum utilities and I get only my SSDI. Despite these factors, I only get 70.00/month. I realize that's more than a lot of people, but it doesn't get me through the month. In fact, it's gone the day it comes in. We need more help than this, especially with the economy the way it currently is. I have to rely on food boxes. And I only get one box (20 lbs of food) a month. We get four free emergency boxes also, which I have exhausted for this year. We get a total of 16 boxes a year. I also have to eat at the dining room and mission to stretch my food. I can't wait to be able to just go into a store and shop without a calculator, which I must currently do. There's also the limitations on what SNAP benefits cover. We can purchase no hot food, no serious needs like toilet paper or pet food, toiletries, etc. I participated in a phone hearing with my provider to get more benefits last Summer but was unsuccessful. I cannot sell or allow others to use my benefits, and I cannot use others' either or I risk having mine suspended. Also some places still do not take SNAP benefits including the markets at the University, which would have greatly helped me a lot as I was previously a student there.
The other sad reality many people don't realize is that there are individuals who make 70K plus per year that are receiving more SNAP benefits than I do. Millionaires as well. Something is very wrong there. Those benefits need to go to those who need them. Rich people should not have them to splurge on Fillet Minon. And they admit they could have survived without them. Just search food stamps on Youtube.
Another stumbling block is VR (Vocactional Rehabilitation). If you haven't worked for a period if time, they require one to do volunteer work for a limited time before being placed in a paying position. This, in order to prove you can work because the state wishes not to spend money on someone unless they will be successful in a job. This makes sense, but it can draw out the process far too long. And I go even longer without a suitable income.
My financial aid helped out greatly in my survival, but I no longer have it. And due to school and my economic hardship, I have a huge amount of debt built up, which I still need to figure out how to pay off eventually. I have been set back also in the way I have had no funds to travel abroad to be able to get the immersion I needed to be my most successful in getting my Bachelor's degree.
Lastly, I would like to talk about my experience with accompanying employed individuals (i.e. my providers). I hate it when I am completely broke and I have to watch them purchase food and other goodies in front of me which makes me feel poor. Kudos to the ones who have helped me out financially out of the goodness of their hearts. But some refuse to because they are not getting reimbursed by the brokerage for food. They only get reimbursed for gas for driving clients around, and not that much either.
So these are some of the setbacks that those of us on disability must face. I hope we can change the unfairness and screwed up governmental ways through God, and Jesus Christ our Lord, as well as through Advocacy with ASAN and other organizations, being like the "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." for the disabled society both here in the U.S. and abroad.
It is dispicable that our government has such a negative mind frame toward toward us.
Disclaimer: This is the first of your blog posts that I have read, and I acknowledge that you may have explained some issues in previous posts.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the message that I took away from this post is "Disability services provide enough to live on for the most part, but not enough to live comfortably on." (Acknowledging that $70/month is maybe a third of what it takes to eat healthfully, and that the amount that you receive in SNAP benefits should be increased accordingly.) Do you feel that this is an accurate one-sentence summary of the issues that you talk about in your post?
If my take-away summary is an accurate description of the situation, I am not convinced (yet,) that this is a problem. To be politically incorrect and blunt, the role of government assistance programs is not to provide total equality. A recipient of these services does not deserve to make the equivalent of an average salary any more than an entry level worker deserves to make the same amount as his or her CEO. (Of course, nowhere does this post, or any other I've seen, claim that a disability payout should be equivalent to an average salary. I'm just using it as an example to support my claim that the role of disability services is not to provide equality.)
Regarding the question of "How much *should* disability services provide?" one must look to the two statements that provide an upper and a lower bound:
1) The payout should be high enough that the government is fulfilling its duty to protect its citizens.
2) The payout should be low enough that, given the choice between a minimum wage job and disability payout, one would be likely to choose the minimum wage job.
After a first reading, *this* article does not convince me that the payout quantity violates either condition 1 or condition 2.