Stargardt disease

[larryyates1986]

NC

My wife and I have been battling SSI for a long time now. Maybe someone on here can give us a straight answer. My wife has Stargardt disease and was diagnosed at the age of 7. She has never worked because fine print and detailed qualifications are hard for her. It is hard for her to recognize anyone from 8 feet away. She is now 25 and every time we apply we get rejected due to my income. I currently make $48,000 but I pay all the bills, which the majority I had before we got married. I carry insurance for both of us which only keeps going up. In addition to that, I am going to have to start paying my school loan back in the beginning of the year and we have a baby due in March. Is there anything we can do to get support, especially since she was diagnosed as being blind before she even turned 10?

 

[TheGeekess]

NC

My wife and I have been battling SSI for a long time now. Maybe someone on here can give us a straight answer. My wife has Stargardt disease and was diagnosed at the age of 7. She has never worked because fine print and detailed qualifications are hard for her. It is hard for her to recognize anyone from 8 feet away. She is now 25 and every time we apply we get rejected due to my income. I currently make $48,000 but I pay all the bills, which the majority I had before we got married. I carry insurance for both of us which only keeps going up. In addition to that, I am going to have to start paying my school loan back in the beginning of the year and we have a baby due in March. Is there anything we can do to get support, especially since she was diagnosed as being blind before she even turned 10?

SSI is welfare, needs-based. Based on your own statement, you have resources available to take care of your wife.
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ssi/text-disable-ussi.htm
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ssi/text-child-ussi.htm
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/EN-05-10052.pdf

 

[Onderzoek]

NC

My wife and I have been battling SSI for a long time now. Maybe someone on here can give us a straight answer. My wife has Stargardt disease and was diagnosed at the age of 7. She has never worked because fine print and detailed qualifications are hard for her. It is hard for her to recognize anyone from 8 feet away. She is now 25 and every time we apply we get rejected due to my income. I currently make $48,000 but I pay all the bills, which the majority I had before we got married. I carry insurance for both of us which only keeps going up. In addition to that, I am going to have to start paying my school loan back in the beginning of the year and we have a baby due in March. Is there anything we can do to get support, especially since she was diagnosed as being blind before she even turned 10?

My guess is that you have gotten "straight" answers all the time; you just didn't like that the answer was negative.

Your income will always be deemed available to your wife if she lives with you. The fact that she was diagnosed as blind before age 10 has nothing to do with anything, neither does the fact that you have school loans to pay.

Now, when the baby is born, the computation will change slightly and a few dollars less of your income would be used in computing the SSI. So one solution would be to have many more babies. At some point, the deemed income will allow for a few dollars of SSI. (in case it isn't obvious, this is an ironic answer, however it is valid). At $4000 gross earnings a month, there could be a small federal benefit if there were 5 children of yours or your wife's in the house. Google SSI Deemed Income Chart 2014 and you will get a variety of hits.

Another solution would be to move to California where there is a state supplement and it is higher for blind recipients so the spouse could earn more money with less effect on the SSI.

Has she gone to the Society for the Blind to look into work and job training? There are many, many totally blind individuals who work full time and earn their quarters of coverage for SSDI. Blind persons often get preferential treatment from your state's Department of Rehabilitation. She is obviously functional enough to take care of a newborn. Yes, she has limitations, but other blind people manage to thrive in a work environment. There are more options for her than relying on a paltry amount of government assistance.

Another (even more ironic) solution would be for you to quit your job and then you and her and the baby could try to survive on SSI of $721 a month federal.