Today I had a meeting with the social security office to see about getting Wesley social security disability income. Wesley passed with flying colors. Turns out that Down syndrome qualifies him automatically.
His parents, however, didn’t pass. Turns out that good things like having cars paid off, working towards owning your own home, investing money in stocks and bonds, having 401K accounts, and earning more than minimum wage–things that the government wants every American to achieve–makes it impossible for Wes to receive disability income. He has to wait until either 1) John’s company flops and we end up on the streets or 2) he turns 18 and is suddenly suppposed to be self-sufficient.
One of my friends told me recently how her friend’s dad was trying to put her through college by working two jobs but was still struggling to make ends meet. So he sought help from the government. The government official told him there was nothing available to help him unless he made less money. The official’s advice? Quit both jobs and go on welfare. Now how’s that for working toward the American dream?
One Response to “That’s the government, I guess”
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February 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Yeah, when Jonathon was unemployed last year, I went to apply for WIC. I was sure we’d qualify, since our income was zero. Turned out that the $8,000 in savings that we’d been living on already for two months and had to continue living on until he got a job disqualified us. Their reasoning was that with $8,000 to live on for the past two months, our “income” was $4,000 a month—well above the maximum. Her great advice was to come back in a month or two if he still didn’t have a job. In two months, we would have been completely broke and panicking about paying for little things like rent and food.
So yeah, the government is dumb.