A sad heads up--for us all....

I get e-mails in my spam box all of the time that herald receiving social security disability benefits as if it were "free money." It is not free money, I had to work to earn it; forty credits equals ten years at least of service. I took pride in my work and when I needed to, I took on extra work to make ends meet.

Well, that all ended three years ago when my lupus and all of it's misbehaviors caught up with me. For years I was told by many people, "go on disability!" but I put it off. I was not lazy.

So now that I am on disability, I am feeling fear. I am scared. Because although I put in over 30 years of work, I get a check for $830.00. I feel sick to my stomach because I know of several others who are either retired or also on social security who get maybe a tad more but for sure, less. I am angered because our Congress wants to also cut food benefits and raise the Medi-care payments. How do they expect the average person to live? I ask you, where is the justice in this? Rent, food, prescriptions, co-pays at the doctor, electricity, phone, heat....clothing, gas for the car as well as maintenance and insurance, or public transportation tokens, they all cost money. I guarantee you, $830.00 doesn't even cover two of the above mentioned bills.
And again, I ask you, where is the justice in this....a country that will gladly hand out aid to foreign countries but cuts aid to it's own residents. People who are on social security are not looking for free money, they just want to survive. I curse these lawyers who only want what they can get, which is usually about a 20% cut of the total settlement. They don't tell their clients how much they will have to "live on," which isn't even living. It isn't even surviving. It isn't even "getting by."

What it is--is a death sentence. These people cannot work anymore, so just how will they have any money? I shake my head. I feel cornered, lied to, betrayed....and so this is just a heads up to all of you who think that once mom and pop are retired, they have it made, think again. They may be facing their biggest hurdles yet. Please do what you can for the weaker among us. Show compassion, and get involved in ways to reduce the fears they are dealing with. Write to your legislators, donate to a food shelf, carpool an elderly person so that they can run errands and not need to rely on a car.

Remember...this just may be you in X amount of years. Take heed.