Share Your Story: The Flip Side of the Coin

Last year, I found out that since I am over 60 I am entitled to Social Security under my late husband's account. Since I started getting Social Security, my adult daughter and my grandson, who has autism, and I have been able to get out of subsidized public assistance housing and into a house. My daughter is in graduate school, and gets SSI payments for my grandson. She and my grandson are also getting health benefits and food stamps from the state, which help keep our heads afloat. I have no health insurance, and no extra money to purchase it. My daughter has had a plot in a local community garden for the last 3 years, and supplements her food stamps with veggies that she grows in the summer. This year, being in a house, she was able to put in some extra veggies at the house, too. We are not living high off the hog - in fact, we rarely eat meat. We are getting by. Once my daughter is done with graduate school, things should be better, but for now, if any of the benefits that we do get, we are sunk. We moved because the subsidized housing is income based, and we are paying for a house about or less than we would have been charged for the subsidized apartment once we told them of my income increase. We shop at thrift stores and discount stores. My daughter takes full advantage of any financial assistance for her education. At this point, between classes and clinic assignments, she cannot work outside the home, even part time, without her grades slipping horribly, and if she does not maintain a certain grade level, all that hard work will be down the drain, since she will be dropped from the program. We are not asking to become rich. We just want to have a roof over our heads and be able to eat and afford utilities. My daughter uses Planned Parenthood for her "girl" needs. She has a thyroid condition, and takes needed medication,. I have high blood pressure, and thank God for $4 prescriptions and a program in Akron that connects uninsured people in certain income brackets with physcians, dentists, etc. who are willing to provide free to low cost medical care. We are getting all the information we can about canning and freezing fruits and veggies so that we can extend the shelf life of our garden and save food money. We cannot cut anything else.

  My father was disabled when i was 5 died when i was 12  after going through all savings on medical bills all we had was Social Security.  My husband was disabled in 1986  with my low pay job and his disabiliity we managed. I went back to school but no one seems to want to hire me and i have been harrased on every job I have had since 1994. This has made me very ill . fix the problems in this country NOT ON THE BACKS Of poor and disabled  we have been underpaid,outsourced downsized burt out  YOU HAVE NO IDEA .people have ripped off programs and that is why you want cuts  CUT THE FRAUD overpayments wastegive people a decent job pay and benefits  I am more than willing to work NOT BE HARRased  and willing to pay MORE INTO Social Security and Medicare to IMPROVE those programs. Charity does't exist any more  we have been ripped off by the banks low pay No job security crappy or no insurance  and pitted agaist each other for far to long. Start your cutting in the war department and private contractors  PAY WOMEN FAIRLYkeep jobs here   PaY your Damn Taxes 

I have worked hard all of my life, always paid my taxes, sacrificed in order to have a better life, was the first in my family to graduate college, and am the proud single parent of a productive adult daughter. During times in my life, on my path to becoming self-sufficient, I relied on the following program(s): Oregon health plan (OHP), financial aid grants/loans/work-study for school (FAFSA), food stamps (SNAP), subsidized daycare so I could work/attend school (ERDC), Section 8 housing voucher (HAP), unemployment compensation so I could find another job while out-of-work (UIB), various job and employment programs, so I could upgrade my technical skills, free clothing (Dress for Success) for job interviews, free haircuts, free bus tickets/passes so I could get to job interviews, subsidized medical transportation services, "one-stop" homeless services (Friendship Park in Sacramento, CA and various providers in Portland, OR), and other programs too numerous to mention.Fast forward to now, and I am happy to report that I will soon no longer qualify for any subsidized programs, as my income from wages, has finally exceeded income limits. I am finally on my way towards becoming truly middle-class! Wow! I am a survivor! Despite everything that I have experienced in my life, I still believe in the American Dream. Where else am I going to go, after all that has been said and done? My government helped me, when I needed assistance to become self-sufficient. Becoming an independent, fully functional adult, is not as easy as it appears.When I applied for these programs, I never expected to continue to depend on them. I always made a sincere effort to find a job that would include healthcare benefits, and a pension. It has taken a long time to acheive this goal, due to various barriers that I have encountered along the way, but things are starting to finally pay off. I still have dreams of owning a home maybe, and a small business (with assistance from my government no doubt - home & business loans, for example).What is the difference between America and other nations? The fact that our country has this amazing (and sometimes frustrating) bureaucracy that has extraordinary resources to empower ordinary folks like myself (including small business owners, farmers, home owners, etc). My life is forever changed, as a result of the efforts of numerous caseworkers, medical providers, teachers and others.Many nations have never quite figured out how to serve their citizens, in the same way that we do. Our system is far from perfect, yet I shudder to imagine what our society would look like, if we did not have our stable infrastructure! Thank you listening to my urgent story that needs to be shared with those in a position of policy and decision making. Warm regards.

I am 52 years old, divorced (25 yr marriage) unemployed mother of two.  My children are 18 and 24,, both honor students.  I was a stay at home mom.  I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, approx 10 years ago.  To this day, I still have not been able to get SSDI or Medicare.  When I worked, I worked for the state. We did not pay into SS.  I do not have enough quarters in to collect.  I am not considered disabled enough to receive Medicare, I only walk with a cane (daily) and a walker when my MS flares.  I am not on any medications because I cannot afford $1000+ per month for the shots. I have no insurance since the divorce. Three years ago I was going to school at DeVry and working there.   I have seen a county dr. that doesn't know much about MS.  The county office is so overwhelmed that they are hoping I go away.  They do not even have a Neurologist or Opthamologist on staff..  And yet, I learned that some prisoners receive benefits, while in jail, and retired government workers have 6 security guards, and even crooked politicans who were forced out of office leave with full benefits (comparable to the CEO's of ENRON).  I have, by the grace of God and my 90 year old, blind mother, managed to survive.  Now they want me to give up my home. So much for the American Dream.So tell me, please, what am I to do?