This is a thread about Social Security Disability

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > This is a thread about Social Security Disability

Kwyjibo: Apr 1, 2003

Calenth posted:

Really good SSI / assisted living stuff

This post speaks the truth. Backstory with minimal e/n: Mom, who is mentally disabled but still able to walk and talk and generally has some idea of what's going on around her, happened to fall into an assisted living facility that took her in from a 5150 discharge at a community hospital, got the medical determination for mental disability from SSI, and was willing to take back pay for rent. She went from homeless to having her medicine dispensed and meals taken care of by people who can be there 24 hours a day. Bad admins suck and can be downright fraudulent, but good admins are really doing the lord's work.

Anyway, SSI is a pain in the rear end. Mental disability doubly so. The income and asset limits are stifling to put it politely. It's also VERY slow to get things changed. I gave notice to Social Security that Mom's paltry private pension kicked in back in February, and so far they haven't said anything back to us, they just keep putting the same deposits in her account. I'm just holding the money in her account until I get the inevitable "pay us back everything now" mail.

OK, here's a bit of SSI bullshit situation that only a bureaucratic program created from myopic legislation could have created:

Memory care is covered by Medi-Cal in California, but only in a skilled nursing facility*. These facilities generally start at $6000/mo. and are generally dealing with people with nearly no cognitive function. Memory care outside of skilled nursing costs half of a comparable skilled nursing facility, but is NOT covered by any government program, so that rent has to come from somewhere. Let's say I wanted to have Mom in a memory care facility that isn't a depressing shithole, and pay the difference that SSI doesn't meet. Whoops! That's a gift! Mom's now getting income! That means that they will instead pay her nothing. What?

Aside from the fact that it'd be nice if they paid for what she actually needed to live rather than an arbitrary number, I can't see why they couldn't at least let family cover a portion of rent for something that she needs to live. Yeah, outside the scope of the program, whatever. It's still a poo poo situation.

mugrim posted:

I'm kind of surprised with the relative absence of posts. Is SS Disability not juicy enough for people? We have a ton of Libertarians on this board who I assumed would be all too happy to debate the merits of a disability program, and a ton of lefties I assumed would be outraged by the insane wait times. Anyone have any insight on this?

It's not a sexy, high-profile domestic topic like gay marriage or health insurance. It's kind of a lonely business too. Nobody I know IRL has had to deal with this specific bullshit, but I'm sure it's happening to a million people every day. And while I'm figuring this all out, I'm trying as hard as I possibly can to insulate Mom from all of this, since she's prone to panic attacks and those tend to land her in the psych wards. Cold, uncaring machinery indeed.

* Yes, I am aware of the ALW program. It's limited in scope and doesn't cover the county, let alone the facility, in question. And I don't want to move her for e/n reasons and also because I don't want to deal with the ensuing panic attacks from the change. It's good to know that the problem is starting to be looked at, but it doesn't exactly help my specific situation.

Kwyjibo fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Sep 4, 2014

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Kwyjibo: Apr 1, 2003

mugrim posted:

I'm confused on the direct deposit issue. What is the difference between cashing a monthly check for three bucks at a check cashing location, or withdrawing it from an ATM for three bucks?

For those in a (reasonable, non-fraudulent) home, ATM isn't an option. Many people with mental disability have the cognition to sign a check that's presented to them, but not to get to an ATM, use it correctly, come back with the cash and ATM card, and use that cash correctly. That means direct deposit, and since they're unbanked (and wouldn't know how to access their account anyway), this means setting up a representative payee, usually the home. In my case I set up a joint account with Mom so she didn't need to name a representative payee, but people in homes without family don't have that option. Also, if the home is the payee then they get to collect a fee. It's just an extra administrative hassle. If the SSA were otherwise not a complete piece of poo poo, it wouldn't be so bad, but it's just all the more hours that each person has to spend getting to their pittance of a benefit.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2014 12:14

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