Social Security is screwed up.
Last year I became eligible for Medicare and SSI because I was diagnosed with end stage Renal disease. This is an expensive condition that causes most people to be unable to work for months, years or even decades, which in Ohio makes a person ineligible for health insurance because of their pre-existing condition. See, in Ohio, if you have a pre-existing condition you can't get commercial health insurance unless it's through an employer. That's where social services steps in.
Social Services is notoriously crazy to understand. I remember being pretty much forced to go sign up for Medicare by the dialysis people, since dialysis runs roughly $36,000 a month. I was on dialysis for eight months and worked the whole time, but because of my dual coverage I think my family paid a total of $200 for all of those treatments. When I signed up for Medicare the nice man at the office also talked me into SSI, which is supplemental income you "earn" by working a certain number of "quarters," although some people say that it doesn't really work that way, depending on your condition, and blah blah blah. Even the people who WORK there don't understand it. Anyway, I got all signed up for that and started receiving a small monthly allowance for the months I was unable to work due to my recovery after transplant.
Now, I am a freak. Most people can't work during dialysis, and most people are out of work for a very long time after transplant. I was very blesssed in that I was able to work up until I had my surgery. I was also going to school, in addition to doing thrice weekly three and a half hour treatments. I had my surgery December 23, 2005, and went back to work in April. .
According to the nice man at the Social Security office, I was technically able to receive benefits from SSI through 2007 since I was "paid up" through then. I guess SSI is different from Social Security Disabilty. The way he explained it was that with Disability, other people are footing your allowance with their taxes, but with SSI you have EARNED that money with the taxes you payed into Social Security from all those years you worked prior to illness. If you're under a certain age you use up your mom's social security taxes, and so on and so forth.
When I went back to work, I debated whether I should still receive benefits. One one hand, I wasn't sure if my health would turn. Also, I was starting to get medical bills. On the other, this SSI was MY money, and it was coming from the taxes I paid by working since I was 16, at one point even working three jobs at once. Still, what if I needed to use it again? Would it be fraud if I was getting SSI while still receiving a monthly income? (It isn't...you can still work and receive benefits, but I didn't know that a few months ago.)
Technically I think I'm earning too much now to be receiving SSI. I HAVE to be, because I earn enough for what I need all by myself. I've also been riding the Clinic's ass and my medical bills have dwindled to $1,000, thanks to my calling every billing cycle and complaining about the errors, coupled with a threat I made to the Financial Coordinator about parking my pasty white rear end on her desk until she personally fixed the problem.
I've been trying to call/write/fax SOMEONE to get my SSI cancelled. I don't need it, and I don't want there to be some sort of error in my amounts and find out I've accidentally defrauded someone. I sent in a form SAYING I was working and I had my own insurance and everything, but after I did that I got a letter saying the were giving me MORE money. I still haven't gotten a response from the Social Security office, and I don't have any days off left this year so I can't go there in person and fix it.
Basically, the benefits people are always bitching because people abuse the system, and here I am TRYING to find someone to tell me how to cancel my SSI and they're giving me MORE money. What the hell? The tricky part is I don't want to cancel Medicare...no matter what, after a kidney transplant a patient is eligible for Medicare for 36 months in case of various complications that might cause a lapse in employment.
So there you have it. There are people out there who NEED SSI and can't get it, despite having worked enough quarters, and here I am, a lucky son of a bitch trying to stop my benefits because I'm self-sufficient, and I can't even find the number or the form to do that.
I looked up "cancel SSI" on the internet, and all I got were pages where you could appeal THEIR decision to cancel your SSI. Apparently no one cancels their own SSI? But what if I need it in the future, you know? I'd like to put some eggs back in that basket.
Yes people, these are our tax dollars at work. I'm afraid when I call again tonight they'll try to bump up my benefits AGAIN. I don't know. Maybe this is part of their master plan to pay me out now so that when I'm old and bitter my social security is all used up and I'll have to sell my body to make soylent green. There's a cheerful thought.
Yay, Government!
Social Services is notoriously crazy to understand. I remember being pretty much forced to go sign up for Medicare by the dialysis people, since dialysis runs roughly $36,000 a month. I was on dialysis for eight months and worked the whole time, but because of my dual coverage I think my family paid a total of $200 for all of those treatments. When I signed up for Medicare the nice man at the office also talked me into SSI, which is supplemental income you "earn" by working a certain number of "quarters," although some people say that it doesn't really work that way, depending on your condition, and blah blah blah. Even the people who WORK there don't understand it. Anyway, I got all signed up for that and started receiving a small monthly allowance for the months I was unable to work due to my recovery after transplant.
Now, I am a freak. Most people can't work during dialysis, and most people are out of work for a very long time after transplant. I was very blesssed in that I was able to work up until I had my surgery. I was also going to school, in addition to doing thrice weekly three and a half hour treatments. I had my surgery December 23, 2005, and went back to work in April. .
According to the nice man at the Social Security office, I was technically able to receive benefits from SSI through 2007 since I was "paid up" through then. I guess SSI is different from Social Security Disabilty. The way he explained it was that with Disability, other people are footing your allowance with their taxes, but with SSI you have EARNED that money with the taxes you payed into Social Security from all those years you worked prior to illness. If you're under a certain age you use up your mom's social security taxes, and so on and so forth.
When I went back to work, I debated whether I should still receive benefits. One one hand, I wasn't sure if my health would turn. Also, I was starting to get medical bills. On the other, this SSI was MY money, and it was coming from the taxes I paid by working since I was 16, at one point even working three jobs at once. Still, what if I needed to use it again? Would it be fraud if I was getting SSI while still receiving a monthly income? (It isn't...you can still work and receive benefits, but I didn't know that a few months ago.)
Technically I think I'm earning too much now to be receiving SSI. I HAVE to be, because I earn enough for what I need all by myself. I've also been riding the Clinic's ass and my medical bills have dwindled to $1,000, thanks to my calling every billing cycle and complaining about the errors, coupled with a threat I made to the Financial Coordinator about parking my pasty white rear end on her desk until she personally fixed the problem.
I've been trying to call/write/fax SOMEONE to get my SSI cancelled. I don't need it, and I don't want there to be some sort of error in my amounts and find out I've accidentally defrauded someone. I sent in a form SAYING I was working and I had my own insurance and everything, but after I did that I got a letter saying the were giving me MORE money. I still haven't gotten a response from the Social Security office, and I don't have any days off left this year so I can't go there in person and fix it.
Basically, the benefits people are always bitching because people abuse the system, and here I am TRYING to find someone to tell me how to cancel my SSI and they're giving me MORE money. What the hell? The tricky part is I don't want to cancel Medicare...no matter what, after a kidney transplant a patient is eligible for Medicare for 36 months in case of various complications that might cause a lapse in employment.
So there you have it. There are people out there who NEED SSI and can't get it, despite having worked enough quarters, and here I am, a lucky son of a bitch trying to stop my benefits because I'm self-sufficient, and I can't even find the number or the form to do that.
I looked up "cancel SSI" on the internet, and all I got were pages where you could appeal THEIR decision to cancel your SSI. Apparently no one cancels their own SSI? But what if I need it in the future, you know? I'd like to put some eggs back in that basket.
Yes people, these are our tax dollars at work. I'm afraid when I call again tonight they'll try to bump up my benefits AGAIN. I don't know. Maybe this is part of their master plan to pay me out now so that when I'm old and bitter my social security is all used up and I'll have to sell my body to make soylent green. There's a cheerful thought.
Yay, Government!
posted at 9:05 PM
2 Comments:
wait... soylent green is people?
well, good to know you're responsible, and trying to be a good taxpaying citizen. sucks that SSI is retarded. but hey, it's ohio, what do you expect?
Hi,
I wrote a lenghtier comment after your "social security is screwed up II" blog. About my own experience TRYING to cancel my SSI.
Now I read your first blog about this subject and feel compelled to write a short bit about SSI itself.
There is Social Security Disability Insurance - SSDI
AND also SSI (as you stated already)
But social security disability, SSDI is the one that people pay into while they work, and might get it when they can't work anymore, when they become disabled. Because a person has already paid for this, they are allowed it, even - if they have money in savings, go on trips abroad, or have other income that is not from work.
SSI is for people who have not worked at all (like housewifes), or people who have not worked enough to have paid enough into social security. They have not "earned" social security disability, so they get SSI, almost a form of welfare, special for disabled people.
When you have SSI, they must have almost NO income from ANY sources! At the moment less than $650 a month. Nor can they receive money, not even gifts, from other people. They are not allowed to have money in savings - over (about) $2000, at any one time. They are not allowed to leave the USA for 1 over month at a time. There are many other restrictions, BECAUSE THIS IS THE PROGRAM FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT PAID INTO THE PROGRAM, thus they are getting this for free, so it is much more restrictive.
I was a stay at home mother when my children were at home, have not worked outside of caring for my own family, am disabled enough for 1 of these programs, but cannot get the social security disablity one, which would have allowed me to do more than the SSI, because I have never worked.
I have SSI, had it for 8 years, have several friends with SSI, and have the rules here at my home.
Breaking the SSI rules can be a federal offense with jail time. I want to get rid of this now because of the possibility, if I don't, that I might break the rules and actually go to jail. SSI has not let me (so far) cancel it.
Both programs allow people on either, to try to go to work again. And give a person a trial period where they can work and not lose eligibility at first, till they find out for sure if thay can handle working (I am 64 and not looking for this option).
therosewild@yahoo.com
I wonder how the social security situsation worked out, since it happened 2 years ago.
Lianna
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