Boozhoo (hello), my name is Ken, I am a disabled Ojibwe artist from northern Wisconsin. I am writing this post because I am having a hard time making ends meet and any donations I could possibly receive at this time would be greatly appreciated. Recent events have left my bank account depleted and my cupboards bare, I have some food but it will not last and I still do not know how I will cover all the utility bills.
I do have PayPal, that is really the best way to donate at this time, the email I use for that is: baapimakwa@gmail.com, or you can click here.
The animal was a local legend among the people living in a protected area of southeastern Brazil’s Atlantic rain forest. They reported sightings of a pure-white tapir, a piglike animal that’s usually dark brown, roaming the area.
Such tales piqued the interest of National Geographic contributing photographer Luciano Candisani, who wanted to capture the ghostly beast on film…
Hopefully the ABLE accounts can help for at least some of the people who are eligible, and actually have some way of getting the extra savings at all. Covering otherwise difficult medical and dental expenses (besides educational) was part of the idea behind that, to begin with.
Shame this is only an option in a minority of states, and only for people who became officially disabled before 26. Not to mention, as already said, that the vast majority of people relying on SSI are unlikely to be able to put away much/any money without the help of family and friends. At a maximum of 75% of the poverty line?
But, it’s particularly nasty how Medicaid does not cover dental care for disabled adults.
Besides the basic issue of finding the money at all, there’s also the $2000 individual asset limit with SSI. One root canal is liable to cost more than that. Some of us are also dealing with conditions which directly affect our teeth. It’s a mess.
That’s actually one of the reasons I ended up with a bit of a dental pileup, after I moved into a better financial situation. When I was on SSI, I got one badly needed filling done for $20 through a free clinic volunteer dental program with an extremely long waiting list. (And was glad for the opportunity, I tell you what.) That was the full extent of dental access over nearly 10 years. It would probably still be that way if I were on SSI. My mouth has needed a decent bit of catch-up work as it is, maybe not too surprisingly.
And I know I’m far from the only one to have ended up in a situation like that. It’s unconscionable that Medicaid does not have to provide any dental coverage, for people who are quite deliberately kept that poor. It’s unconscionable that anybody is kept away from dental/medical care, period. It just adds a few extra layers of nastiness, setting people up in that position because they are disabled and needing to rely on SSI/Medicaid.
NEW YORK — Justin Bainbridge is 27 and works two jobs, but he wasn’t
allowed to start saving money for his future until a few months ago.
Bainbridge
has Down syndrome, and like other people with disabilities who receive
government benefits, he can’t have more than $2,000 in savings. If he
does, he would start to lose those much-needed benefits. But a new type
of savings vehicle is giving Bainbridge, and others, a chance to save
more cash.
Known as ABLE accounts, they let people with
disabilities and their families save up to $14,000 a year without losing
benefits. The accounts, which were made possible by a law signed two
years ago, are operated by individual states and are similar to 529
college savings plans. So far, 16 states offer the plans and about 10
more are expected to do so this year. Most of the states let
non-residents sign up. Each state has different rules or maintenance
fees, with some charging as much as $15 every three months.
Disability
advocates say the accounts are badly needed, since people with
disabilities were forced to spend extra money to avoid losing benefits.
With ABLE accounts, money saved can be used to buy anything that helps
the life of the person with a disability, such as rent payments, school
tuition or groceries.
“I’m saving for a new couch,” says Bainbridge, who shares a two-bedroom apartment in Omaha, Nebraska, with a friend.
Since
June, he has put away more than $1,800 in an Enable account, the ABLE
program run by Nebraska. He makes about $5,200 a year from his part-time
jobs, one folding towels at a gym and another collecting movie tickets
at a theater. But he still needs his monthly Supplemental Security
Income cash benefit to help pay his rent and live independently, says
his mother, Kim Bainbridge, who also stashes away money for him in the
ABLE account.
For
years, disability advocates have tried unsuccessfully to increase the
$2,000 savings limit, which hasn’t been changed in nearly three decades.
“It
kind of shackles you to a life of poverty,” says Christopher Rodriguez,
a senior public policy adviser at the National Disability Institute in
Washington.
The idea for ABLE accounts came about a decade ago
from parents of kids with disabilities who were frustrated that they
could not easily save money for their children. One of those parents,
Stephen Beck Jr., spent years advocating and lobbying for a law. Beck
unexpectedly passed away in 2014, just a few weeks before President
Barack Obama signed it into law. To honor Beck, the law was named The
Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act.
His
widow, Catherine Beck, is using an ABLE account to put away money for
their 17-year-old daughter Natalie, who has Down syndrome and wants to
go to cosmetology school to work at a nail salon. The Becks were able to
easily save money for their eldest daughter, who does not have a
disability. But for Natalie, they had to create a special-needs trust
that required hiring a pricey lawyer to set up.
“Her savings has not grown like her sister’s has,” says Catherine Beck, who lives in Burke, Virginia.
To
qualify for an ABLE account, the account owner must have had a
disability before their 26th birthday. Anyone can put money in it, such
as family or friends. If the account goes above $100,000, the person
with the disability will lose monthly government cash benefits until it
drops below that level again. Medicaid health benefits are never
affected, no matter how much money is saved. Money can be invested in
index funds and earnings are not taxed.
“For the first time a lot
of individuals will be able to work, save money and get some growth out
of it,” says Adam Beck, director of MassMutual Center For Special Needs
at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
When
the person with a disability dies, Medicaid can claim any leftover
money as payback for health care paid after the ABLE account was opened.
Since each state has different rules and fees, the ABLE National
Resource website has a tool that compares the programs.
Matthew
Shapiro, who lives in Richmond, Va., and works to promote the state’s
ABLE program called ABLEnow, says finally being able to have some
savings helped reduce his money worries. The 26-year-old, who has
cerebral palsy, uses a power wheelchair to get around and unexpected
repairs can be costly. He travels sometimes for his business, 6 Wheels
Consulting, which helps educate companies and organizations on
disability issues.
“Being a person with a disability is expensive,” says Shapiro. “These accounts are so much needed.”
1) ABLE accounts are amazing for the people that they help but
2) If you become disabled later in life (which happens to a lot of us) you can’t access this, and are stuck in the same penury loop that you are now.
I became disabled in my 30s. I can no longer work an office job, because I’d have to somehow magically become able to work 40 hours a week for a year to be covered by FMLA again, which will never happen. If I ever need to go on disability, it will basically completely screw us over as a family. Basically the only reason why I’m not going for disability right now is because of how much it would mess up our ability to try to get out of debt and save what scraps of money we can.
So – yes. These are great. But there is a huge swath of the disabled community who could be helped by these and aren’t being helped. I’m not sure WHY people who become disabled as adults after 26 can’t access these accounts… but it would really help a lot of us escape the disability penury trap, in which you cannot save any money, so budgeting your income doesn’t help, because if you have too much cash, they take away your income…
I announced last week that the disability office sent my dad to a doctor that reports directly to them, and they would make the final determination based off this info. This was farther than we ever got before and I’m very hopeful that he will get on disability.
While waiting for disability my dad completely drained the last of his money and I have to help him completely now financially. I don’t make enough to do this but I’m hoping the SSD office will make their determination soon and this will no longer be a worry. We saw the estimates of what he should get if he gets on disability and it would cover his bills.
Anyway I’ve paid what I can BUT I still have a few minor bills that I didn’t have enough money to cover. I would have just let them go late and pay later but he’s been late on them before and they sent us a letter telling us they would fine us if it’s late again. There’s a Cox Communications bill that needs to be paid but I can just let that run out. I need the internet for school but I can just go down to a Starbucks for a while and they usually wait a bit to cut the cord so it might not even come to this.
I still need $119.13 total to pay for the water bill (111.57), the electric bill( 23.63), and his solar bill (63.93).
(The reason his electric is so low is because he has solar which he still has to pay for but if you live in AZ you know this is much cheaper than paying the hundreds & hundreds of dollars many see over the summer. And the water is so high because we missed last month’s payment.)
If I was to pay the Cox bill then it would be 287.12 total, which again I’m not concerned with. I will just do my online classes at Starbucks or something. If I get enough then I will but this is the last thing I’m worried about and the other bills are priority one. Here’s my paypal and thank you to all those who spread this and help us out.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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