Your emotional angst does nothing to fix the situation.


I'm not opposed to the government helping people like her but I would want to know more before saying it's a scandal she isn't getting more assistance. A single person with an income of 16,000 should not necessarily be presumed so poor they need foodstamps.


Her income is about what you get from SS. Many, many Americans live on SS and not much more. So it can clearly be done.


Government help may be part of the solution for her but part of the solution may also be moving into a smaller apartment that doesn't cost as much to heat. Or better yet, finding someone else to live in the same house with (or a new apartment) to share expenses.


edit: She obviously needs help. But the help she needs may be as much someone who can come in and look at what she's spending money on and find a better way for her to live as it is needing more money period.

heh you do realize I am going to save this quote for a later argument.

 

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I'll help you out here since I've been down this road with my wife. My wife makes a whopping $751 a month on SSDI. The reason for this is, it is based on previous years income, just like social security. My wife was previously married and worked full time. A few years after we were married she started developing degenerative arthritis in her hips and spine. Eventually she could only work part time. She did that for about 10 years before applying for SSDI. At that point she had worked so many years part time that it adversely affected her SSDI. SSDI is just like social security. You can work as long as you don't make over X dollars per year.

As far as medicare goes. It kicks in after you have been on SSDI for two years. Then, and only then are you eligible. Once that kicks in, it is like everything else. You can opt in to part B at $115 / month, which comes right out of your SSDI payment. Since she is on SSDI she has medical issues. Medicare doesn't cover everything. She could pick up a supplemental plan which runs about $350 a month which would cover all her medical expenses (except malnutrition she would suffer from not eating).

This woman is one of those unfortunate few who are too rich for assistance and too poor to survive.

Her 16,000 a year is just above minimum wage. I don't think you can reasonable expect anyone to survive very long on their own on minimum wage.

 

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Go for it. I am happy if you want to remind people in future to understand the situation before making emotional snap judgements.


P.S. Apartment rents in harrisburg are an average of 650/mo for a one bedroom or 750 for a two bedroom according to teh interwebz. That doesn't include utilities most likely but even so on 16,000 a year that doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility. She should be able to find a single for 550ish. That's 7k a year in rent. Leaving 9,000 for utilities, food, car insurance and medicare gap premiums. That doesn't seem totally unworkable. If she wanted to move into a two bedroom with another person like her they could both live pretty decently. Her house is probably worth nothing but if she could sell it for anything at all that would give her a certain cushion too.


I understand people have emotional attachments to their homes but I'm not sure the government should really be in the business of paying people to live in houses they can't afford to live in when much more reasonable options are available.


Of course the situation could be different from what I'm imagining. But we don't really know from the article. From what we do know it doesn't seem like she should necessarily be starving in a freezing house based on the amount of money she gets each year.

I'll just be posting the quote a few times in the future.

 

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So why don't we raise the minimum wage?

 

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I'm going to throw down with Imaloon on reposting rights for Yuki's post on 16K a year incomes.

 

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I'm not sure that's really true. It is not a great existence I am sure but it shouldn't be impossible. The most obvious solution is to find someone else like yourself to live with in a two bedroom apartment. 30k/year for two people is much easier to live on than 15k/year for one.


Even living alone if you are careful with your money you should be able to make it on 15k/year, assuming you live in an area with a lowish cost of living. I couldn't do it here in Oakland (unless I wanted to live in the hood), but there are plenty of places where I could if I needed to.


Now none of this means that people making 15k/year shouldn't get government assistance. If we as a society decide we want to give minimum wage earners more than a barebones existance I'm happy to support that. I just object to the idea that 15k/year is impossible to live on and will result in someone starving in a freezing house.

 

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Lets put some numbers to the figures you left out. Since I live within a few miles of Harrisburg, my numbers will be pretty accurate.

I'd say $200 / month for food. That is another $2400 / year.
PP&L electric for a 1br appt is about $100 / month. Add another $1200 / year
Renters insurance (you won't get a lease without it) is around $300 / year
Highmark Blueshield Medigap C plan runs $341 per month in 2012 that is another $4000 per year (I know this because we just dropped them and put my wife back on my plan)
Car insurance will run about 300-500 a year for a junker. So we'll go with 300.

So far we are at an additional $8200 which now leaves her with $800 per year for car repairs, hair cuts, clothes and any personal taxes, fees, and surcharges the great stead of Pennsylvania will impose upon her.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting some costs, like gas for her old beater car. Of course, these days no one uses $800 a year in gasoline.

 

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