Social Security benefits are a perennial target for cuts because the program faces a long-run shortfall. Some lawmakers and opinion leaders mistakenly portray the program’s benefits as lavish. The fact is, benefits are modest and workers have earned them by paying into Social Security — protecting themselves and their families if they retire, become disabled, or die. Here are five key facts that policymakers need to keep in mind…
My favorite part of SSI for people with disabilities is that they can have a $2000 asset limit. That limit was set decades ago and remains unchanged. That’s like 2 months of SSI, so you can’t accumulate wealth
I pay for (via employer) long term disability coverage because it’s cheap, and because my odds of needing it are marginally higher than average.
But in reality, I buy the coverage because I hear the horror stories of people trying to get disability, backlogs, denials, etc.
For me, the fear is not being able to work / work full time, and how the hell would I live while waiting the process out? Could I reduce costs enough to live on SSDI? Probably. But I can’t reduce costs to zero while the process drags out.
As ever, we underfund programs so they do t work properly and then try to cut more funding because they don’t work properly.