How to Make Ends Meet on Social Security Disability Benefits (Updated for 2023)

I understand completely .. .I gave everything and worked hard to do it. Now kids are busy going on vacations having fun living life and I seem to be a burden to them...it's hard.,..I stay in one room alone 24 hours a day and can not afford to get out at all.....there fore just have memories to think of and get more and more depressed. Mostly due kids for got us. Kids move on and mom has nothing left to give.im sorry for u for I feel your pain.

How do you get 862 I only get the standard 750

Wow do I feel your pain. I'm 64 yr old widow fighting cancer with lupus in a rare blood clotting disease I am scared to death to turn 65 because when I'm 65 I lose my Medicaid and my one colon surgery just the hospital bill was $883,000 I've been lucky so far, I stay so far as Office of the Aging has steered me in all the right directions as far as long term care at home a free emergency button to call the paramedics food stamps and Medicaid but in a month when I turn 65 they want $865 spend down because I make $4 a month too much with SSD and widow's pension. And I have to tell you, they gave me that raise of $9 yes but they took it away from my widow's pension $11 so for the third time we got an increase in what 10 years, I have actually been decreased and lost money. On top of that I fell and broke my leg in 10 places had to have surgery the hospital sent me home and left me hemorrhage for 10 days back and forth to the emergency room doing nothing now I have a necrotic me which is the least of my worries. I've had 5 surgeries and three years they took my colon out because the CIA tumor was too big 2 just remove the tumor, the GI doctor said I waited too long. No in the 18 months prior I had been in the hospital and admitted 7 * telling them something was seriously wrong I had terrible pain doubled over nape keep me do blood a cat-scan and say nothing's wrong sent me home 7 days before they diagnosed me with that cancerous tumor I had been in the hospital for 10 days in horrible stomach pain telling them something was wrong. After the cancer surgery less than a year later I got a bowel obstruction again I had one in 2012 and had several before that so another surgery I now have a partial obstruction again I have to have another surgery but they tell me when I turn 65 I lose Medicaid the money doesn't exist in a budget that is backwards every month 2 even consider a supplemental insurance payment per month. Now I could lose my widow's pension because I'm turning 65 and we'll have to live on $900 a month mind you it's costing me $600 a month for the Boost the probiotic meds the vitamin B12 B6 d and all the rest of the over-the-counter meds that is not covered by insurance. I had a good job all my life 2 jobs actually as a respiratory therapist, I had an IRA which was used to bury my husband and live on $500 a month for two years until I was able to get widow's pension. I went back to work for 6 years with systemic lupus in horrible pain doing home care, spent my entire life saving lives in trauma ICU emergency all the Intensive cares and now I get sick and I can't get help. And you talk about your kids what a joke isn't it I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I didn't dish out to my kids all my life even as adults Mom I'm not going to make the mortgage payment Mom I don't have the rent mom the car broke down mom I need this Mom I don't have food mom is the bank and now that I'm sick I sit here alone with people from my church helping me not like kids. I was diagnosed with cancer and my daughter moved to Florida 2 weeks later never even telling me. Neither of my daughters were there for my cancer surgery. And I still have one that keeps bugging me for this than that and just doesn't understand I'm scared I'm a widow alone and a mobile home scared to death I don't even put the news on anymore because I'm so scared of the government cutting Social Security how am I going to get through another surgery which I find out when that is next Wednesday? Who's going to take care of me? Who's going to help me? I can't even leave the house because I messed diapers because they messed up and cut too much of my bowel out can I prove it no because my surgeon in never even told me to leave year later that in 2012 surgery I had a huge hernia and she put that much screen in and never told me that I even had hernia surgery it was an emergency bowel obstruction surgery I have four teeth that they broke during one of the surgeries that are rotting I have pain in my jaw and my face up to my head that I can't even get taken care of because I have to have oral surgery to do it and Medicaid doesn't cover oral surgery and Medicare doesn't cover it. My credit cards are maxed out just to stay alive these past three years for all the over-the-counter meds and diapers and ensure and all the rest of the stuff I can't even get out of the house. But there is one thing I do have on my side and not is the Lord. And I know that may sound corny to some but it is giving me Comfort amongst all the fear. But I still don't know what I'm going to do, I'm petrified to call Social Security and find out what's going to happen in April and I got a call soon I'm just waiting for the doctor to tell me when the next surgery is Wednesday and how bad it's going to be and what it entails. I wish I had advice for everybody on here but I don't know what I'm going to do myself just barely making the bills and if I file bankruptcy then I don't have a chance of getting a HUD apartment or any kind of assisted Section 8 apartment or anything. Some days I just sit and cry alone in my room because I can't even go out to the store without messing myself. I still do it though because I have no one else to do it. I wish I could tell you that there's a solution but I can't find one myself. I wish I had a magic wand for all the seniors like me the last year I worked I paid $8,500 to Social Security and they want to take it all away and I sent my entire life 25 years working two jobs saving people's lives? What's wrong with that picture and that question is directed directly at the government! I worked in the worst city for stabbings and shootings and car accidents that the chopper brought in, and one of them may have been related to somebody in the Congress for all I know but that's the thanks we get for working our butts off. I would go work right now even with the lupus even in the pain I'm in in my me and my shoulder that needs replacing but how do you work when you mess a diaper all the time? You just can't so what do I do I don't know what are you guys do I don't know I think they want the seniors to die so that they don't have to put that medical expense out and the Social Security payments out I truly believe they want us to die to get rid of the payments, that we weren't asked if we wanted to pay it it was just taken from us just like taxes were. I don't remember anyone asking me do you want to pay $8,500 a year for Social Security so you can get screwed when you become disabled or become of Social Security age. Did they ask you cuz they certainly didn't ask me if I wanted to give them that $8,500 a year per job. I truly do not know what I'm going to do in 3 weeks what I do know is I have to have surgery what I don't know is is am I going to recover in the snow outside in a 1996 bomber as today kids don't want you to live with them now that infringes on their privacy you are a burden, that's not how I was taught I took care of my grandfather at 97 years old and changed his diaper and wipe them because he wanted to die at home and that's what we did and that's what we were taught. Today the kids are probably just put me in a nursing home I don't know I'm pretty sure they would but I can't even afford to pay for a nursing home and now the government has capped how many times you can have a physical therapist and an occupational therapist come to the house I broke my leg in 10 places when I fell from the lupus for 7 months I had to have physical therapy or I wouldn't be walking today and I'm walking today in a lot of pain I wake up in the middle of the night in such horrible pain in this knee if it's in one position too long that I can't even straighten it out but I bear with it and I try to stay positive I try to stay strong but it's getting harder and harder to stay strong day by day sometimes I think I'd be better off if I didn't wake up. I think the only thing stopping me from taking my own life is that I believe in the Lord and I want to be in heaven with my husband and my mom who died three months after my husband who was a very healthy 19 years younger than me I had a brain aneurysm at the dinner table after telling me how much you love me after going through two abusive marriages and abused by my father and knowing nothing else in my life but abuse until I met him he was the most wonderful man in the world kind caring loving wonderful and at 36 years old he was gone in a Flash in seconds 3 months later my mom was gone in seconds I lost my whole family within 5 years and I bear that grief everyday. Everyday I sit here in bed alone worrying about what am I going to do am I going to be homeless am I going to be recovering from surgery and my car what am I going to do what are we supposed to do I don't have an answer but I have a heart and I feel for everybody and all their comments on here thank you for letting me get that all out I'm scared I'm a 64 year old Widow who's scared and the one thing in life I said I did not want to do was grow old alone and not only am I growing old alone but I'm growing old alone sick very sick. And then the cable bill turns my bill into $180 and it's not like my internet's a luxury I have a button that I have to press that I wear a watch if I fall because of the lupus I have a heart blood pressure oxygen level monitor that has to go 3 times a day to the nurse and plenty of times they've gotten the results and said call nine-one-one get to the emergency room because of this what they called dumping I've been dehydrated or had low potassium or low magnesium in the IV I don't know what I'm going to do I wish I had a friend that was in the same situation that I can share this with I've even thought if I would meet a nice man that was sick too that we can get through it together with both of our incomes and make it how crazy is that how insane is that to think? When you have children of your own that should be caring. Like I said I wish I had a solution guys if I did I'd let you know and I wouldn't be in the position I'm in myself it's scary isn't it? I know I'm scared and the more I'm alone and think about it the more scared I get and I'm not scared to die at all I'm scared to live this way not being able to afford medical bills not being able to afford the medications not being able to afford the diapers and not being able to afford my everyday bills I don't know when the last time I bought myself anyting it's been at least five years since I was able to go by myself a sweatsuit are a nice pair of pajamas or a robe. I need repairs on my mobile home that's a real joke they have to just stay unrepaired and that's where I'm at and I didn't ever think I'd be in this position because I had a good job that paid well but we weren't given the option to take that $8,500 a year per job and put it into something like a retirement fund my parents didn't teach me that the schools didn't teach that I didn't know anything about any of that and the two rotten husbands I had they were taught that either and neither was the good husband I had for that matter well new sunsun crying and getting upset because it's not going to change anything I don't know what to do I wish to God I knew I wish I had an answer I wish I knew what I was going to do but I don't

I'm living with a friend and pay them 300.00 A mom. To stay . So a social security worker is falsely saying because the guy owes mortgages I have to pay more than 300.00 A mon . And he does not even own any property. He rents where I'm staying.. So she takes 250.00 out of the750.00 now I'm only getting 500.00 How can this even be fair when it's all a lie. This worker has no proof of the mortgages. Because there is none. And I shouldn't be responsible for his mogages anyway. Is this unfair. Where are my rights of being discriminated against.

There is a apartment complex that will not put up a railings for people with disability that walks with a cane need a railings to hold on coming down the steps.who can we report this too.

I am on regular disability, not SSI. So is my husband. When we were able to work we made excellent wages. We both have arthritis, fibromyalgia, deep depression and and spinal problems. Plus other things. We're both miserable most of the time. And to not have the income we once had is very depressing. However we have had to learn frugal living. I go to Foodbank, which helps a lot. I got FS... a whopping $15 per month. That I save up for something special I usually cannot afford. I am also eligible for extra help, which helps with scripts. I pay 3.30 no matter the cost. Hubby makes to much to qualify for it. We also get our Medicare back each month. But the best thing I've discovered Thrift and pawn qstores! I love looking around for everything from clothes to blenders to lamps! Thrift store queen! Sure we do without, but honestly, most people do even those not on disability. I hope this is helps a bit. Hang in there, sweetie. God will provide you with what you need.