Can we talk a second about how disability benefits are less (or entirely lost) if you live with your parents or are married? And the fact that we can’t save more than 2k? Because that’s basically creating a system that will trap disabled people in abusive situations.
I am blessed with a safe and healthy marriage, but what if I wasn’t? I couldn’t save an emergency fund or really have any exit plan if my money were cut in half or taken away completely. It leaves you completely reliant on your spouse.
And if you still live at your parents’ house you’re just as fucked. And this goes for like... if you’re crashing on someone’s couch and not paying rent, they see that as you don’t need that much.
I was homeless for several months when I first lived in Olympia. 3 months crashing on my (now) in-laws’ couch & two months of living in this hostel that let me live there for free. SSI wanted ME to pay THEM back for that.
Even though they didn’t actually raise my payments until 3 months after I moved out from my parents’ house- hence why I crashed on Bree’s parents’ couch, because I couldn’t afford to pay rent.
So basically SSI wanted me to pay them money I didn’t recieve (because it took 3 months for the system to update) for the crime of uhhh *checks paper* homelessness.
I was able to fight them on that, luckily, but it was a battle. And I’m embroiled with them again for uhhh getting married in 2012. Since it was a gay marriage it didn’t become federally recognized till June of 2015, but they certainly feel like we owe them reimbursement.
Since Bree was a college student they kind of left us alone (mostly, aside from a few vaguely threatening phone calls about backpay) but once she starts working they WILL cut my check by at least a couple hundred.
Bear in mind, the current standard SSI check for 1 childless adult is $750. So like... it’s already barely a pittance as is. Take (roughly) $200 away and I’m down to $550. That puts MOST of the financial burden on my (also disabled) wife, because she is able to work.
SO, here’s the thing. We have a safe and healthy marriage, and we’re still looking at some pretty devastating worst case scenarios. Now, add an abusive spouse (or parent) in to that picture and I’m sure you can see where shit gets sticky.
The system is SET UP to make disabled non-workers barely able to subsist & almost completely unable to afford to live alone ANYWHERE- especially a city (which would have needed things like uh PUBLIC TRANSIT & slightly better accessibility than rural/suburban America)
If you throw marriage or couch hopping/craahing with a relative or friend or living with your parents in to the equation, it’s putting us at even higher risk for abuse due to financial dependency on an abuser.
Anyway tldr, our current SSI system is set up to prevent disabled people from being independent or part of public life, lest we be forced in to financial dependency, and/or penalized for getting married.
Ableism isn’t just a fun buzzword, folks. It’s a slow genocide.
Ableism isn’t just a fun buzzword, folks. It’s a slow genocide.
