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.

  • Quimby [any, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    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.

    • BGDelirium [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      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.

      • Quimby [any, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        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.

      • Quimby [any, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        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

          • Quimby [any, any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            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.

            @BGDelirium