Bipolar Disorder Community

Hmmmmm, I have mixed emotions about this. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 hrly, and there are currently 5 states whose minimum is even below that! Most states are just at the federal minimum wage, and 18 states just above that. WA state has the highest min wage at $9.19.

The proposed new minium wage of $9 would go into effect in 2015 and would boost the wages of 15 million Americans.

The President addressed this last state of the union where he states that the wealthiest nation on earth shouldn't have people working full time but still living in poverty (because of the low federal min wage). He states how it would help the economy because of putting more money in the pockets of people and so increase spending.

Having said all that <lol> from what I read of your post, I don't think you have issue with the proposed increase of minimum wage, but that those on social security disability get less than that min wage, correct?

The mixed emotions that I have about this topic is 1) the social security pool is running low and the way it is now, there is acually concern of it running out by..(?cant remember the year, but not too long from now)....so there simply isn't enough money in the budget alloted for social security to pay us more. But more than that (because frankly, I don't know exactly how all of that works) but more than that, for ME personally, I would have a hard time if I were getting more or the same on disability as someone working full time. I realize that it's not my fault that I am on disabilty and currently not able to work, but in my opinion (emphasis on "my opinion") I lean toward the opinion that someone who is working full time should be earning more than I am, who is not working. If I were working and making less than someone on disability (which is currently the case for some folks who are working), I would find that discouraging - like "heck, I may as well just try to get on disiabilty so that I will only be a little poor rather than below the poverty line" you know? (figuratively speaking)

Of course, it would always be nice to get a bigger check on disdability, but I do believe that we are given enough to live on. It's not an easy amount and you have to really watch your spending, but it's doable.

I don't know - I guess I have always been amazed by the benefits that I do get (financial, med insurance, food stamps) that I've never thought about it in comparison to what those working earn. I just know that yes, I have to be more careful about what and how I spend as opposed to when I was working full-time, but I have more than enough to live on.

Anyway, just my opinion - not really based on anything but my own gut reaction, and it could change someday down the road - but for now, right or wrong, that's where I'm coming from. But, I will see if I can find out how to start a petition and let you know if I do.

Debbie

Hi again Jessica,

I just found a website called, "Change.org" and it's a site specifically for starting petitions. To quote, "Change.org is the world's largest petition platform, empowering people everywhere to create the change they want to see.
There are more than 25 million Change.org users in 196 countries."

Just go to www.change.org and then click on the link that says, "Start a Petition" and it will tell you what to do from there.

Debbie

Hey Debbie, thanks for everything you had to say. Made me think. The main complaint I have with the amount of money I receive is as follows: 1) Yes, I used to make better money while working. 2) My husband has a good job with great benefits, but because I'm such an expensive wife (our private joke) after benefits a base two week check for him with no over-time is under $650. 3) Unless my husband is working said overtime, we have more money going out most months than we do coming in. 4) Even with a monthly budget that we're doing pretty good sticking to, even little luxuries like a new book or cd is usually out of reach unless family has given us money. (And I love to read!!!) 5) Together we make too much money to qualify for food stamps or other state or federal aid.
So that's my complaint. And while the government says that the money for social security is running out, that's actually a proven lie that Congress is touting in order to "scare" the public into letting them do whatever they want to with the Social Security Administration. I forget the name of the website, but we were listening to our local PBS radio station and they had a guest on who was talking about the major myths that the government is "selling" the American public.

Thanks for the website, Matt actually helped me find one called thepetitionsite.com. If you're interested in signing my petition, it's called Increase Monthly Checks for Those on Social Security. Thanks!!!! And thanks again for the information and for making me think. Take care and have a great day. (((((((((((Hugs)))))))))


Jess

That's almost 600 more than I get from social security, which is barely enough to pay my phone bill and buy groceries...I have no idea how they expect anyone to live on that independently...and they say I don't qualify for food stamps because I already get SSI & that is supposed to be enough. The only really good thing I gt is extra help with my medicare premiums and meds or else I'd be one dead duck!

Oh and rent, can't forget about that, I get just barely enough for phone bill, rent & groceries.

Hey Michelle,

Do you have any medical/therapy bills that you have to pay out of pocket monthly? Just asking because re food stamps, I didn't get very much on food stamps at first because I neglected to tell them all of the out of pocket medical/therapy expences I had, which amounted to an average of about $300. When I told them that (because it didn't make sense to me how little I was getting on food stamps) they were like, "Oh! I think you should qualify for the full amount and we owe you money!" So that month I got the full amount plus an extra $350, all because of letting them know about my out of pocket expences. They don't have to be just medical either. There wasn't really a place to put that in the application, so I put it in the place where you can write notes - plus, I verbally told them when I had my yearly review over the phone. I make sure I Tell them every time. In fact, before the call, I make sure that I have all my reciepts gathered, added, calculated and averaged before they call. lol Aint no way they're gonna drop me again! lol

So, just something to think about.

Debbie

Well I did, but everything got so expensive I stopped it all...I don't even fill all my meds every month because I often have very, very little "extra"if you can call it that...I'm reallyterrible at managing money to begon with, i have a spreadsheet that says how much i get and what i need to pay, etc...but it never meshes out in realy life. Perhaps I need to try just a bit harder...

don't you qualify for "medicare extra help" with your meds? I think I read somewhere that you do, in which case, your co-pay shouldn't be that much. I just had a script of provigil (generic)sent to me and the co-pay was just $2.65 - and that, for a medication that costs $600-800 (give or take) for 30 pills!

Do you know what level of extra help you are on? It has 3 levels with level one medicare paying the most.

Sky,

I'm horrible about keeping track of money also. Finally my husband got so sick of having to raid our emergency fund to cover daily expenses, he made me promise to write down all the bills we have going out each month, when they go out, what we have coming in and when, and do that each month. I show him that at the beginning of the month, and we do our best to stick to that budget. If we go over somewhere, we try to come under somewhere else. For instance, I have budgeted $70 a week for Aldi's (our grocery store) and $100 for Wal-mart. If we go over on Aldi's, we do our best to come under at Wal-mart, and vice versa. We usually do pretty good, although I will admit, most months we have more going out than coming in. It's rough. I mean, we got $9,000 last December from his grandmother, and already we're down to $5,000, and that's after putting most of our tax return in the emergency fund. I like our little truck, but it seems like lately it's breaking down every other month and the repair is always over $1500. And we can't afford to make payments on anything, so we're stuck with it. All I can say, is thank God it's paid for, and has been for at least 5 years. Good luck getting the help you need. It sucks big time being poor!!! I remember the one time I applied for food stamps when I lived in Indiana once they found out I was drawing unemployement they flat out refused to even hear my case. Same thing in Texas. Plus they make you wait like two months before they'll even consider anything, and you're like, so okay how am I supposed to feed myself for two months till you even hear my case??? The government is run by a bunch of morons as far as I'm concerned. Except for Obama. I like him.

Take care guys,

Jess

You're right Jess, the time I got food stamps, I had been fired by my job & they did do that 2 month exclusion thing to me too, I mean you go there because you're desperate and starving and they make you wait 2 months, maybe to see if you'll drop dead before they have to help you...and also when I tried to go to the county mental health place they did the same thing to me, they counted my job-I-had-been-fired-from income and said they could only help me if I paid a $75 Dr fee...so I left & went on to have a complete breakdown on my own for a few months...if they'd been better at helping I may have gotten help YEARS earlier than I did & been saved a lot of heartache & ummmmm...trouble....
All of our government agencies that are supposed to help I find they seem to do the opposite of that...

No Debbie, my meds are cheap, $1.10 & $3.30, well they went up this year like some small amount of change maybe 1.50 and 3.90? idk, something like that. I haven't had any scripts filled so far this year, haven't been to the dr either yet, which I called to make an appt but no one ever answers or calls me back....the kind of good thing about my being so forgetful is I had extra meds because I always forget to take them, but I'm almost out of everything so should probably get back on trying to get an appt w/the new doc, I'll put that on my to-do list for the day.