LafayetteLady
Posts: 7683
Joined: 5/2/2007
From: Northern New Jersey
Status: offline
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Because you never worked, you won't ever be able to change to SSD from SSI. The link that Barona provided is very helpful:
quote:
EXAMPLE C: If you live in another person’s household and share expenses.
Suppose you live with your brother, and 2 uncles in a home that your brother is buying and your only income is SSI. There are 4 people in the household. The mortgage payment is $700. The average monthly bills are $200 for electricity, $100 for water and sewer, and $600 for food. The total monthly expenses are $1600. Because there are 4 people in the household, your share of the expenses is $400 per month.
If you pay your full share of $400 for the household expenses there would be no reduction of your benefit and you would get the full $710 in your SSI check.
If you pay less than $400, then you would be receiving in-kind support and maintenance. We would apply the one-third reduction rule and the $710 would be reduced by $236.66 so your SSI benefit would be $573.40.
So, logically, even with James living with you, as long as you provide your fair share of the living expenses (in your case, half), then your benefits will not change. At least according to the link Barona provided, which is directly from Social Security, so it can be trusted to be accurate. James is not providing more than his fair share (half) of the living expenses, and you are providing your half. Based on that link and the above from that link, your SSI benefit should not change.
Now Chris, we both know I have a bit more knowledge of you situation since we often talk privately. You are in a bind because of past debt, that you are trying to pay off, which is great. However, the payments both you and James are making towards your individual debt is leaving you destitute.
Unlike some others, I'm not going to admonish you for getting into debt. It happened, and you learned your lesson. Now you are paying the debt off and trying to move forward. Your best bet would be to contact your credit card companies and try to get the payments reduced so that you can still pay them, but you have money to live on. The same thing applies to James.
In the meantime, you do live beyond your means and both of you need to be on a very strict budget. I told you I could help you with this. But it means no more quick foods that you simply microwave, and no more eating lunch out for James. You simply can't afford it. With a strict budget, you could purchase food that would be easy for you to prepare (think crock pot), but you and James also need to seriously limit your portions (which would be good for you anyway).
You should qualify for Medicaid AND food stamps based on your income situation. You need to apply for this at the Social Services office, NOT THE Social Security office. The place might also be called The Department of Health and Human Services (must be politically correct and all).
I realize I went a bit off topic, and as usual, whenever you post, people feel a need to attack you, which I don't think is fair, but I do understand their reasoning behind it.
Now as for you getting a job. You and James are not really the best people to determine your ability to work. I know there could be issues of transportation for you, but you really need to get to the Social Security office and talk to them about the Ticket to Work program. Since you have zero job history, you obviously are looking at minimum wage positions, but you are in a situation where even minimum wage would be helpful to you. Working at all will provide so many benefits to you beyond the money. You really MUST contact the program, which will assess your abilities, and provide you some training. Working part time, you can figure out how it goes. You will develop a new skill, it will improve your social skills because you won't be such a shut in anymore, and it definitely can bring about improvements to your health.
There are many programs available to assist you. With your medications, dental expenses, food pantries, getting a part time job, transportation, etc.
So yes, go report that James is living with you, along with evidence that you are still paying your fair share of the household expenses, and your SSI should remain the same. Once you do that, you need to really step up and contact all these places and find out what assistance, job training and such is available, and then take advantage of it.
And again, my offer to help you create a strict budget for you and James remains available.
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RE: If I report that James lives with me, can they coun... - 
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