Just got off the phone with Social Security and found out that I likely don't qualify for my infant daughter's SSI disability support because I make $400/month more than the supposed maximum allowed.
My daughter has a congenital heart defect, chromosomal disorder and several other health issues to work through
She has been hospitalized since birth and has been on breathing support for most of her first 8 months of life,
Even though I made all the "right" decisions for our family's safety and financial security:
Scrimped and saved to have a good emergency fund
Got a secure union job that fights for regular pay raises and COLA adjustments
Don't own a car, bike and bus for all travel
The absolute cheapest rent I can find for an acceptable one-bedroom apartment
Live in a city with access to a children's hospital for my daughter's multiple health needs and specialists she will need for the rest of her life
Piled on to the fact that my wife and I have no family financial support because I grew up out of extreme poverty and my wife is an immigrant with her whole family also impoverished.
Any Hexbears experienced with this process? Was told I could possibly appeal after getting a probable rejection letter in the mail.
I hate to say this but you might need to lawyer up. I know the only way to get on disability is via a lawyer. It's one of those unwritten rules, you're going to be denied over and over unless I think you take it up with them.
Does depression, anxiety, OCD and addiction count as a disability?
What state, is that okay to ask? I might try myself.
Thanks, I should give it a shot. I've got plenty of time in an out of institutions as you know.
That was the thing. The interviewer didn't even ask about a medical history for my daughter. Just the boilerplate questions about being disabled or blind.
With all of her various ailments, she will likely meet whatever the definition of disabled is [as well as having some vision issues in one eye], but we are still in the observation, diagnosis, and recovery stages at the hospital.
I think it being a phone interview versus in-person hurt as well.
my first thought is that there's a lot of income that doesn't count for SSI determination purposes.
are you still over the income threshold after applying all tax credits and dividing your income in half?
for example, $317 in gross wages ends up getting reduced to $116 for eligibility purposes. https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-income-ussi.htm
there's other stuff we can talk about, but it makes sense to start there.
The interviewer just asked me for my hourly wage. She calculated it for a 40 hour work week and then multiplied by 4.3.
She then said I was roughly 300 over pre-tax and the whole spiel about the rejection letter coming in the mail. I asked about an appeals process and she said that can be done with details on the letter.
She isn't doing it right. Your income for official government purposes like this one is based on your w2 and taxes, not your hourly wage.
This is very frustrating. Underprivileged people constantly get screwed like this.
I wish I knew you irl so I could help you sort this out 😕
For your appeal, I would get your ducks in a row, and make a simple, clear statement that your income was miscalcuated and the denial is therefore straightforwardly incorrect.
I think that may not necessarily be the case. Here it says that deemed income is used to determine if you qualify for SSI as the parent of a disabled child, and deemed income is the adjusted income mentioned before. https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/spotlights/spot-deeming.htm
oh, that is a good reminder that OP should also look into state benefits, if this hasn't already been explored. some states may have more generous benefits and entirely different thresholds too. it is total bullshit, of course, how opaque this all is.
Not sure on the official hexbear rules, but if you set up a gofundme or whatever for either lawyers to get what you need or medical help, please let me know.
idk about official rules but we have !mutual_aid@hexbear.net specifically for helping each other out
I know how we feel about electoralism around here but I'd suggest giving your congressional offices a call. A buddy of mine had issues with ssa and disability and the caseworkers in his rep's office were able to help. YMMV of course but just something to consider if you haven't already
I don't know what it says that I have to spend money to lawyer up, in order to get money from the government. Just baffling.
