[geeks] rescue Digest, Vol 157, Issue 6

[hike]

Yes, the Federal Law, written by fully-employed, fully-benefits,
fully-pensioned Federal Government employees, was a really crummy law to
penalize those who wanted to get off the dole and penalized those who could
gain employment for short periods of time (but not full-time).

With IT systems changeover, I always proposed running the old system and
the new system concurrently in case of problems and for the comfort levels
of the users.

In Government assistance programs, I believe the same.  It seems inhumane
to punish those who are trying to help themselves even if they cannot
manage full-time employment at any given time.  I want to see people reach
the point of taking responsibility for themselves and achieve and excel.  I
curse our Federal Government for taking away a personbs bhumanityb by
making them afraid to escape dependency.  Some people need help and a bhand
upb is always appropriate.

On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 10:56 AM, Phil Stracchino <phils at caerllewys.net>
wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
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