Difficulty of Poverty

[Ste11aeres]

In my case, the prescription drugs help. Like almost everyone here in the UK, I have access to free universal health care.

I moved from a State (California) that offered me free health insurance because of my income level, to one that doesn't offer that based on income. And the current USA law still requires me to have health insurance or else pay a fine. I know health insurance is important, but being able to afford groceries is more universally necessary.

 

[shinkansen]

I moved from a State (California) that offered me free health insurance because of my income level, to one that doesn't offer that based on income. And the current USA law still requires me to have health insurance or else pay a fine. I know health insurance is important, but being able to afford groceries is more universally necessary.

So how are you expected to have legally enforced health insurance, if you cannot afford it ?

 

[AsperDragon]

I just did my taxes for the 900 dollars i made last year...i of course had no insurance as i make too little to get the poverty discount. But the good news is if your state doesnt give you medicare (Texas) the federal government waives your fee for lack of insurance.

 

[Judge]

And the current USA law still requires me to have health insurance or else pay a fine. I know health insurance is important, but being able to afford groceries is more universally necessary.

Find out where you stand on this- Form 8965 - Health coverage exemptions and instructions

"If you aren't required to file a tax return, your tax household is exempt from the shared responsibility payment and you don't need to file a tax return to claim the coverage exemption. However, if you aren't required to file a tax return but choose to file anyway, you must claim the coverage exemption on line 7a or 7b of Form 8965."

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8965.pdf

 

[Beverly]

There are pople out there who milk the SSDI and welfare system - too many of them. The sort that get food stamps, afdc, Medicaid, SSDI etc but, really could go to work if they wanted to. One in town here like that, she can walk around the mall for hoursd on end, but she can't be on her feet long enough to hold a job as a payroll clerk because of a broken tail bone FIVE YEARS AGO that, she claims left her unable to feel her legs. I've reported her, given video of her walking around the mall and other local sotres for hours to Social Secuirty and Welfare office yet, she still gets that check every month and, still has that handicapped parking permit.

People like her are the reason so many are so down on people who really do need assistance. It sickens me that it has to be like that but, it's a case of a few frauds ruining it for everyone that really does need the help. That's the problem with actually needing public assistance, you end up treated like dirt because of the frauds out there that leech off the system.

I want it to change but, until the agency giving the aid start screening and monitoring people on assistance better and, removing the frauds aggressively, I don't see the view of ALL people asking for help potentially being somone trying to take advantage of the system when they don't need it changing.

 

[wanderer03]

There are pople out there who milk the SSDI and welfare system - too many of them. The sort that get food stamps, afdc, Medicaid, SSDI etc but, really could go to work if they wanted to. One in town here like that, she can walk around the mall for hoursd on end, but she can't be on her feet long enough to hold a job as a payroll clerk because of a broken tail bone FIVE YEARS AGO that, she claims left her unable to feel her legs. I've reported her, given video of her walking around the mall and other local sotres for hours to Social Secuirty and Welfare office yet, she still gets that check every month and, still has that handicapped parking permit.

People like her are the reason so many are so down on people who really do need assistance. It sickens me that it has to be like that but, it's a case of a few frauds ruining it for everyone that really does need the help. That's the problem with actually needing public assistance, you end up treated like dirt because of the frauds out there that leech off the system.

I want it to change but, until the agency giving the aid start screening and monitoring people on assistance better and, removing the frauds aggressively, I don't see the view of ALL people asking for help potentially being somone trying to take advantage of the system when they don't need it changing.

Do you have a citation or research that proves abuse of these systems? I think the majority of recipients are honest people who need it. There will always be people who will abuse the system but it is dangerous to assume that many abuse it without having concrete evidence. I am one of those recipients and I honestly need it. Politicians caused hardships on the poor by making policy decisions based on assumption rather than researched fact.

 

[Ste11aeres]

So how are you expected to have legally enforced health insurance, if you cannot afford it ?

Some other people gave informative answers about that right after you.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Do you have a citation or research that proves abuse of these systems? I think the majority of recipients are honest people who need it. There will always be people who will abuse the system but it is dangerous to assume that many abuse it without having concrete evidence. I am one of those recipients and I honestly need it. Politicians caused hardships on the poor by making policy decisions based on assumption rather than researched fact.

I'm sure there are individuals who abuse it-but I doubt that they exist in great enough numbers to outweigh the many many more who genuinely need it. Beverly's example is of a particular individual she has witnessed, but it sounded to me like she agrees that they are only a few individuals.

 

[wanderer03]

As a recipient of these services, I am very sensitive to those that would leap to a conclusion that I or other recipients are lazy or dishonest. It upsets me when folks make statements assuming that the majority of welfare service recipients are milking the system. It is those statements that cause these programs to have their budgets cut or to be eliminated altogether, thereby making life even tougher than it already is. I have meltdowns when I try to work in office jobs or higher paying, higher stress jobs in Information Technology. I drive a bus and don't earn that much money but I take immense pride in at least being able to contribute, albeit minimally, to society. If I didn't have these programs available to me, I could not afford to see the Psychiatrist for my anti-depressant or my Psychotherapist for necessary counseling. I would be much worse for the wear without Medicaid, Supplementation Nutritional Assistance, and Social Security Disability - there is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful to have this assistance.

 

[Beverly]

Do you have a citation or research that proves abuse of these systems? I think the majority of recipients are honest people who need it. There will always be people who will abuse the system but it is dangerous to assume that many abuse it without having concrete evidence. I am one of those recipients and I honestly need it. Politicians caused hardships on the poor by making policy decisions based on assumption rather than researched fact.

My experience with the people I know on public assistance is quite the opposite. The woman I wrote about above is one of my ex step daughters so, yes I KNOW for a fact that she can do whatever she wants, and did work as a billing clerk prior to the fall that broke her tail bone (in her own house.) Since then I have been with her and, my ex shopping, dining, spending the day in a casino and, she is not disabled in any way, yet she gets that check, even AFTER I sent video of her being on her feet, laughing and smiling for hours to both the social services and, social security offices in my county.

Another of my ex step kids, a man, farms his wife and 18 year old daughter out as escorts, cash money and, he wants them to get pregnant so that they can get more welfare money. I've reported them too but, they are still on welfare and NOTHING was done abut them.

Another well known couple here in town got divorced simply so that she could get free Obamacare and food stamps. She still lives with her ex as if they were married, but now she gets welfare when he makes over 50,000 USD a year. Another one that's been reported and, welfare KNOWS she still lives with him but, she gets free medical and food stamps anyway.

The state I live in is a right to work state, meaning, even if they quit, they get unemployment. One of my former maintenance men quit and, is now collecting unemployment, food stamps and, free medical for himself and his family. I still had a job for him, I didn't have any reason to fire or lay him off, I was happy with his work yet, he quits and I still have to pay his unemployment.

Yes there are people that really do need the assistance but, more often than not, at least from all I've seen, they take advantage of it and don't really want to even try to work. Mostly because welfare pays more than a minimum wage job would pay, they have no incentive to work when they can get more a do nothing.

Meanwhile people like you, and a lot of others on the spectrum who do need and deserve the assistance, who really are trying to better themselves don't get the help they need because of all the leeches on the system.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Beverly, wanderer03
The thing is...in my opinion, it is probably impossible to compile statistics on such people, to compile statistics about how many "leeches" there are, and how many decent people in hardship who really need such help. The former group succeed by not being officially found out, and as a result, can't be made part of an official statistic.
This doesn't mean that such programs should be discontinued-it's good that they exist because there are still decent people who genuinely need them.

 

[shinkansen]

Do you have a citation or research that proves abuse of these systems? I think the majority of recipients are honest people who need it. There will always be people who will abuse the system but it is dangerous to assume that many abuse it without having concrete evidence. I am one of those recipients and I honestly need it. Politicians caused hardships on the poor by making policy decisions based on assumption rather than researched fact.

Excellent post.

Any reforms to welfare payments system should not based on anecdotal stories supplied by the public. It makes it easier for politicians to justify spending cuts, who can then 'play to the gallery' when reducing welfare programmes. Poor policy making decisions, as you say.

The same is happening here in the UK. We are 5 years into an government austerity programme, where benefit spending cuts appear to be based on headlines in cheap brightly coloured mass circulation newspapers.

I have been unemployed and applied for benefit payments. During these periods of unemployment, I was one of the jobless who had an iPhone and the internet at home. I'm sure that would make a great headline for a newspaper for the hard of thinking: "man with expensive iPhone lives on welfare handouts". I bought my iPhone when I was working, but that might confuse readers who just see the story as "my taxes are helping an unemployed person buy an iPhone".

Claiming welfare payments is a miserable experience. Because of that, I never judge those who claim welfare.

Thankfully, I'm in work.

 

[Jonathan Lees]

this is exactly why im in favour of socialism and a basic universal income for all (look it up it exists in a couple of places world wide and actually works).

 

[wanderer03]

shinkansen and Jonathan Lees This is really why I am hoping for Bernie Sanders. Normally politics fill me with despair and hopelessness but Bernie actually gives me a spark of hope for people like us. Every time I use my debit card, I'm charged fees which are basically usurious. I'm charged .50 per PIN pad transaction and 1.95 for withdrawing money, even at an in network ATM. In an out of network ATM, I'm charged 1.95 plus the ATM owner fees. I'm taxed because I'm poor - no bank will touch me.

Bernie Sanders wants the USPS to provide banking services for the poor. I wish the USPS could do this already. Then maybe there would be some competition in the lower end of the financial system.

 

[paloftoon]

I feel this immensely right now, because I have a job I am good at and it doesn't overwhelm me most of the time; it is 25 hours a week and I have a lot of autonomy and a boss who is very supportive of my ideas and helpful when I struggle with executive functioning. But I am not employed for half of December and January, or for June through most of August, because it is academic year only. So for four months I am essentially unpaid / unemployed. I tried for unemployment benefits last summer but they told me I didn't make enough to begin with to qualify. Essentially I am too broke to get benefits for being broke. The executive functioning thing makes it especially hard, I can't sort out what to do first, second, third, etc. to try to improve my situation, and I can't seem to manage even the basic tasks of day to day living, especially cooking so I buy a lot of things that are precooked or can be eaten raw, both of which can be expensive. Will someone please explain this to the student loan people, because they keep harrassing me to pay them the $80,000 I owe for going to college, which I persisted in doing because I was told if I did my earnings would be so much greater than if I didn't. Ironic, that! It took me 14 years to finish and could only work part time so I missed many years of potential income, not to mention the debt accumulated. But everyone tells me how great it is that I worked hard to finish my degree. Somehow it doesn't feel so great. I feel like I've been duped yet again for not being able to tell when people were lying to me and taking advantage of me. I don't qualify for a full salaried teaching position...unless I borrow more money and get a master's degree!

Do you have 24 credits above a Bachelors? Some states (or at least one of them) don't require the Masters out full on. You're welcome to PM me. I have my Masters and have taught for a number of years. I would be happy to give you some potentially helpful advice.

Have you tried requesting for Medicaid and food stamps since you don't qualify for unemployment during some of those empty periods that have occurred? Do you have certifications? Are you aware of the substitute agencies in your state if applicable? Also, have you considered online school to work at (if possible in your state)? Maybe you could consider moving to a different state where demand is higher for teaching?

 

[wanderer03]

I don't necessarily mind being poor. I don't need a lot of money to be happy or comfortable. I'm just sick and tired of society punishing me for being poor and making a profit at it. I want fair access to the banking system without being charged fees tantamount to usury. But that is asking too much.

 

[paloftoon]

I'm feeling frustrated and like the deck is stacked against me right now. My difficulties with executive functioning have left me in a state where my credit is poor and no bank even wants to let me open a checking account. I just obtained employment and my new employer, effective Dec. 18th, will no longer issue live checks.

So, I went to Wal-Mart to get a reloadable debit card and was effectively turned away. I guess I'm persona non grata with GreenDot as well. GreenDot would only issue me a one time use card. What can I do? I haven't committed any crimes as far as I know and I cannot get an explanation.

I admit I have made mistakes but I wish I wouldn't be continued to be punished for them. I'm feeling sad and today was really difficult. I used my EBT (food stamps) and someone behind me told me that I am a drag on society and should get a job. It's as if I've been dealt a double whammy: Autistic and Poor.

Fixing credit takes time. I'm not sure who you would negotiate with for that, but if you find out who, don't ask too often because that could inadvertently make your credit status worse in the long run.
http://www.wikihow.com/Repair-Your-Credit

By any chance, can you open a savings account with no interest gain?

Have you tried this?
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/WorkingatFDA/UCM277757.pdf

You are in the same state as me and kind of close to me. You can PM me for more information on possible opportunities.

 

[wanderer03]

Fixing credit takes time. I'm not sure who you would negotiate with for that, but if you find out who, don't ask too often because that could inadvertently make your credit status worse in the long run.
http://www.wikihow.com/Repair-Your-Credit

By any chance, can you open a savings account with no interest gain?

Have you tried this?
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/WorkingatFDA/UCM277757.pdf

You are in the same state as me and kind of close to me. You can PM me for more information on possible opportunities.

I was in a sour mood yesterday which was made worse by hearing people rail against welfare and socialism. I realize it will take time and I am patient. For now, I can make do with the reloadable debit card. I'm grateful to at least have a job and getting disability assistance. Just one day at a time. Having autism is very frustrating at times.

Oh well, today is a better day and unseasonably warm. Good to see the sun.