Social Security and Me

According to the November 2011 report at SSA.gov the total number of people receiving Social Security is 60,542. Of that number 52,426 receive only social security, 5,352 receive only SSI and 2,764 receive both. You can review the rest of the list by clicking on the link.

I am one of those that get both. I never made a lot of money in my working life. My average yearly income never amounted to more then around $9,000. If you do the math on that it comes to $750 a month (or $187.5 weekly before taxes). The best yearly income I ever saw was just over $13,000 and that was working two jobs for a period of time.

I have been on medical disability retirement since 2008 and average $694 monthly. $52 monthly I never see because Child Support is taking it for back support (my daughter has been over 18 yrs old since 2006). Like many others I pay rent, utilities, phone, cable/internet, gas for my car and a city water/sewage bill. That all average out to around $670+/- monthly. Thankfully my girlfriend and I share a house together and split the bills. Neither of us could afford to live alone.

According to Health and Human Services website (2011) poverty level for one person is $10,890 (two persons is $14,710). Doing the math on this it is easy to see that my yearly income on disability is $8,328 by which I am currently $2,562 below poverty level based on the HHS guidelines. If we use the Census Bureau poverty thresholds figures (poverty level for one person is $11,139) I am $2,811 below poverty (a $249 difference).

I survive. Mostly I have learned to live on what I have and only splurge on one main thing which is having cable/internet service. The phone (in case anyone things that is splurging too) is a medical necessity for my girlfriend.

For years I have heard people talking about how they can't survive on their income. I listened to people whine about how they can't afford to buy a new car or take a longer vacation yet almost everyone who says this lives on more then I have ever seen in my life time. Almost all of them make two or three times weekly more then I ever did.


I am sorry if I don't show sympathy for those of you who can't afford to survive on your $40, $50, $100 thousand a year income. Sorry if I don't understand why you think you deserve a raise on top of your already nice incomes. My apologies if I offend you for thinking you don't need a new car every year or a vacation in some far off country once or twice a year.

I have enough problems of my own surviving. I can't afford a vacation or a new car. I will likely never know how it feels to own a home or remodel an older one. I love to travel but I can only afford to go 20 miles a week if I plan to have gas to last me a month so going across country is out of the question. I would go to work if I could. Even part time to supplement my current income but the government seems to think any extra income is making too much (even if it doesn't bring me over the poverty level) so they will cut my current income if I do that.