[geeks] rescue Digest, Vol 157, Issue 6

[Phil Stracchino]

On 12/04/15 09:15, hike wrote:
> We know an Iraqi refugee family.  The wife went to work for a newly-founded
> cleaning service...

> I know small business owners who have told me the same thing throughout the
> years b if you raise the pay of welfare recipients, they risk a loss of
> b
benefitsb
 (welfare).
> 
> This problem is caused by some Do-Gooder, IMHO.  Federal Government
> involvement is detrimental to the citizenry and local communities when long
> term welfare for the able-bodied is concerned.


Personal experience:

Shortly before the tech crash, I got smashed up pretty badly in a
traffic accident.  (Lady driving a full-size station wagon made an
illegal left turn across a divided expressway and T-boned me on my
motorcycle.  While I was in ICU on heavy sedation, I'm told the hospital
was telling my family I'd never walk again.  I proved them wrong on
that, btw.)  I lost my job in the tech crash (like so many others), and
simply could not get another job, because in that employment market
nobody wanted to take the chance on hiring someone who was in constant
pain.  I managed to get one 14-week contract-to-hire in four years that
never went to hire.  I eventually qualified for social security
disability - and that 14-week contract ended up costing me 13 months of
back benefits because it was over 3 months.  I made a net loss on it.

When the economy started to pick back up and my mobility was somewhat
improved after getting a set of artificial knees, I started looking
again at trying to go back to work.  And one thing I learned early on
was that the way return-to-work provisions for social security
disability were structured, if I tried to go back to work and it did not
work out, but lasted longer than 90 days, I was utterly screwed.  If
they let me go on day 91, I would have to totally start over from
scratch - and since after the banksters crashed the economy the SSI
disability was our only income, by the time the application got to the
disability interview stage we'd already be on the street.  I literally
did not dare risk applying for anything that was not a 100% certainty.

Fast forward to 2010 when I got a solid job prospect.  In the interim
the law had been changed.  *Now*, it worked like this:  I could attempt
to return to work, and *for a full year* I would still receive full
benefits *as well as* whatever I earned.  If at the end of that year I
was still employed and making over a certain amount, my benefits
switched off (below that boundary level, they would be pro-rated on an
earn-two-lose-one basis), but I had a further *two* years during which
if I became unable to work again, as long as my doctor reported I was
still disabled, my disability benefits would just start back up again
without going through a four-to-six-month re-application.

And that changed *everything*.  It was no longer "Come home with your
shield, or on it."  I could, and did, take the chance.  I've been with
Datapipe for five years now.

If they hadn't changed the law to make it no longer a sink-or-swim
hail-Mary play, I'd probably still be on SSI disability.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino
  Babylon Communications
  phils at caerllewys.net
  phil at co.ordinate.org
  Landline: 603.293.8485