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kouassikofi t1_irued77 wrote

Reply to comment by KlondikeDrool in Social Security boost will help millions of kids, too by AmethystOrator

Great idea but needs to be tied to other reforms or like many government plans it can cause some unique oversights. My younger brother (adult age) is mentally and physically disabled. He draws SSI. He lives in a full care group home. His benefits increased another 1000$ from this. Only problem is his cap was not increased. If he has more than 2000$ in his name he can be unenrolled. We have to spend the money as quick as it comes in just to keep him eligible for his services. I know, hardly a problem people want to hear about. Too much money. But in his unique case it is both extremely stressful as he could lose access to the care he needs and it is a bit wasteful as we keep making unnecessary expenditures with money that could be helping someone else. Last week we bought a new mattress even though the old one was fine. Ended up donating the old one.

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KlondikeDrool t1_iruhk55 wrote

Wow, that's classic government shortsightedness. Index some amounts to inflation while others are frozen in time forever. Eventually the asset cap will be smaller than the monthly benefit if our fine politicians don't get their act together and fix it. Good luck with that one, I feel your pain!

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mushy_beans t1_irus7c4 wrote

If he was disabled before age 26, he is eligible for an ABLE account allowing you to save an additional $100,000 without affecting SSI or Medicaid eligibility. It has some restrictions on how it can be used but they're very reasonable, it's a great asset.

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kouassikofi t1_iruv0uq wrote

Thanks. I will look in to that. It looks like his SSI can be put in directly as well. As my parents get older his primary guardianship is passing to me. It is a bit overwhelming.

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DialUpInternet4Life t1_iruouaw wrote

Same with putting some out of qualifying for food stamps or assistance with heating/cooling.

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OgnokTheRager t1_irw8uc4 wrote

I feel that in this case it's not "too much money". It's like you said, they don't increase the cap to correspond to the real world. My wife doesn't work and while I make decent money in a general sense, our cost of living is so stupid high due to where we live we barely scrape by. But we can't qualify for government assistance programs or subsidized schooling for my son because we "make too much money"

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i_LoveLola t1_irvub0a wrote

I know I'm late to the party but the same thing happens with my mentally disabled cousin. My aunt & uncle send him to see his mom in Florida once a year and also buy stuff he doesn't need just to burn through that money. Makes zero sense.

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