Have Not Paid Enough In...
 

I am 48 with bad foot pain,take 3,200mg's of Gabapentin and am a type II diabetic.

Left home at 17 and wandered aimlessly,hitch-hiking and homeless....confused.

I have not tried to apply for SSI because i have read i have not paid enough in to recieve disability.

Due to being homeless i may also have mental problems,am not working and haven't for 12 years now,not sure why?My wife pretty much supports me working at Wal Mart :(

Sad,i know..........any suggestions how i may recieve SSI? Cannot wear shoes more than 2 hours,kills my feet :(

SSI does not require any work history. SSDI does. SSI is a low income disability program. Your wife's wages may or may not make you ineligible.

Best solution? APPLY! Fill out all the forms. Completely. Thoroughly. Before the end of April 2010. Start today. You may be denied. Your neuropathy may be serious enough for you to be found disabled. But your wife's money will always matter as long as you live together or she gives you money.

Start with the Social Security Administration. Call 1-800-772-1213 and get an appointment. Complete an online disability report at socialsecurity.gov. Since you have a prescription, you must have some treating medical source. The more evidence you have the better, but it is possible to be approved with minimum evidence when you have a severe problem. Or you may be denied. At least you will have an answer.

Apply. If you are denied, consider getting a representative and file an appeal. You have already lost potential months of payment because you have not applied. Waiting longer means losing more potential months of payment.

Thx for the advice.

I have never received "free cheese", but now i am getting concerned enough :rolleyes:

Here are the requirements for SSI, I would call my local office not the 1-800 # because they don't know all the programs your state has to offer. There are a lot of states that offer medicaid, food stamps and temporary income. You may want to make an appointment and go down there. They can tell you what you do or do not qualify for.

http://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-eligibility-ussi.htm

Not sure if this applies to every state or not. But someone I know won and got their backpay. Now Indiana is going after most if not all of it. For paying back food stamps, a surgery that the State of Indiana paid for their daughter and items such as this. Is this normal?

I've seen something like this done in Florida. They made somebody pay back medicaid through a car accident they had.

Some states will also match a certain percentage of a SSI recipient's benefit. In California I would have received as much from SSI and the state as I ended up getting from SSDI... Take care of the application and during your interview with the local SS office, they'll let you know about your eligibility.

I did apply but have already been denied benefits thru the mail.Had an appointment set up but according to the letter i am not eligable because me and the wife have over $3,000 assets :confused:

Guess you cannot own a shack or car?

You can own a shack or a mansion on a ranch or a tiny lot and it is excluded for as long as you live there. One home is excluded.

One car used for transportation is excluded from the resource limit. Could be a $300 barely running 1985 Buick or a 2010 Lexus.

SSI recipients can have a shack that is their home and can have one car and still be eligible for SSI. You must have other resources. Read your paperwork. Do you live in the shack or not?

Last I checked, as Janke said, you could have a house and a car, but not over $2000 in other assets (ie...in the bank)

House was my wife's when we married,still have it and yes,it's a shack :wink:

I did get $21,000 from my Mom's estate last year and have most of that in the bank.Due to my bad credit :o it is in my wife's name.My name is not on the account.

We have 2 cars,both paid for.A 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis and a 1988 Ford F250

Looks like i need to suck it up and get a part time job.My feet cannot tolerate shoes more than a couple hours doing max Gabapentin.Don't know how safe i can work doing the max dosage though :eek:

Thx for your help though...:winky:

So the SSI denial has nothing to do with the shack you own, nothing to do with whether or not you are disabled and everything to do with the amount of savings you and your wife have that is over the $3000 resource limit.

If you are able to get a job and haven't worked in 12 years, if you do manage to earn 4 quarters a year for the next 5 years, and you have 10 years of work in your lifetime, you would then have enough credits for for Social Security disability and could still keep your $21,000 in savings since it would be Social Security and not SSI that you'd be applying for. The monthly amount might not be very high because your lifetime earnings, including the zero years, are all factored in.

A minimum wage job, 20 hours a week for the next five years might just be enough. You'll then also be over 50 and it may be easier to qualify.