It's interesting to me that a post I made four and a half years ago continues to attract attention and comments. It received more hits this year than anything I posted this year! My contribution was small. I only quoted from a fact sheet prepared by others. It didn't have what I think of as a catchy title but it keeps attracting more attention and comment than anything else I've posted. The blog post was "SSI Is Not Enough To Live On." It still isn't enough to live on.
7 comments:
I'll quote the second response to the original post:
And they also get food stamps, fuel assistance, WIC, free medical care, Section 8 and other housing subsidies, food from food banks and places like the Salvation Army, cash and services from local social services organizations, I could go on...
While not including any specifics, this poster is right. If we are going to make a blanket statement that SSI is not enough to live on, we should present all the facts. MANY, many SSI recipients receive some, all or more of the benefits noted above. SSI supplements those resources. Is this a glamorous lifestyle...no. But SSI is available to the poorest of the poor who have never earned SS insurance. It is a life preserver and is not meant to sustain a comfortable lifestyle for an indefinite period.
@12:39 and others: However, not all states provide all the benefits that you and others have mentioned. The Southern states in particular, are very miserly when it comes to benefits. Our General Assembly in NC is cutting back severely on food stamps, housing subsidies, etc. and we do not have extended Medicaid. Recipients of our state Medicaid are finding that Medicaid is refusing to pay for necessary prescribed medications and procedures. There is a race for the bottom in our state and several others. This is the reality! Perhaps y'all in "liberal" northern states have these benefits, but you don't see them in our state, and they are diminishing daily.
Non-profit organizations and churches cannot make up for these losses.
Wish they would get rid of the Supplemental part of SSI. Basically it is the MAIN income of someone who is poor and disabled.
You can call it welfare just like food stamps, AFDC, TANF, etc. But rarely do SSI recipients have other supplements. In California, food stamps are gone once on SSI. However California supplements about $200-300 on top of the national average so that is better.
Always tell my clients to look at the state they want to move to if on SSI. It is different but SSI is usually in the $700-900/month range.
Enough to live on? Not sure probably depends where you live. But probably not.
Poor Doe makes $733 a month on SSI. Poor Doe does not qualify for food stamps because he is single and he makes too much. He qualifies for fuel assistance, however, the Section 8 housing list has been closed for years, so his fuel assistance is useless. Poor Doe now has to live with friends, to whom he pays 50% of his social security check for monthly rent. It's too bad he cant rent an apartment or trailer home, as landlords require you make 2x the rent. He has also tried other housing subsides, but they are all out of funding or housing. Poor Doe goes the food bank, but he is only allowed 1 box a month. After becoming sick from eating from the expired food bank box, Poor Doe is lucky to have free clinics, since his state does not allow people who cant work, aka disabled persons, to receive Medicaid. Poor Doe has tried to get cash assistance, but they tell him they only give that type of assistance to people can work. So that is story of Poor Doe.
Sincerely,
Poor Doe
Poor Doe's situation is very like that of a friend of mine that I try to help out and look out for, although my state seems to be a bit more generous. No housing assistance here, either Section 8 or public housing, because the waiting lists are ten or more years long and have been closed entirely for the past eight years. Food banks limit how often you can go, I think four times a month. Heating assistance is like the housing assistance, but even worse, no one really gets it. Maybe 50 households or so in a city of 300,000. Come to think of it, I've not seen anything about it at all this year so it may have been cut entirely. Fortunately, the friend can and does get food stamps, and he found (with much help) a landlord that was willing to rent to him even if it is well over half his income. The bugs aren't too bad in the building and the place is actually in okay shape and keeps the rain out. He doesn't use the heat much and just stays cold, because heat costs way too much.
Correction at 11:43: Four times a year, rather.
11:43, im so sorry to hear about your friend. Even though they are not as bad as Poor Doe, they are still in a unfortunate situation. Even though your friend gets food stamps, it's still not enough to have a proper diet. And supplementing your diet with salvaged food doesn't help.
There is so much red tape for poor people, that its almost impossible to get out of a situation.
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