{"id":737,"date":"2022-07-15T18:01:25-04:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T22:01:25+00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/?p=737"},"modified":"2022-07-15T18:01:25-04:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T22:01:25+00:00","slug":"too-little-and-too-much-the-squeezed-middle-and-disability-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/too-little-and-too-much-the-squeezed-middle-and-disability-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Little and Too Much: The Squeezed Middle and Disability Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you\u2019re a disabled member of the professional middle class\u2014or even the working poor\u2014it can hard to get the support you need if you don\u2019t have relatives or a spouse to do it for you. Although many disabled professionals make too much to qualify for benefits, they make too little to pay for services like housekeeping without going into crushing amounts of debt. That\u2019s my story in a nutshell: I\u2019ve had to go into an absurd amount of debt to get the education I needed to be able to work, accommodate myself, and offset my lack of family wealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

My flavour of autism makes it harder for me to do a lot of repetitive, physical, \u201clow-skilled\u201d jobs. I put \u201clow-skilled\u201d in quotation marks because cleaning, cooking, building, and other manual tasks do require skill, but they don\u2019t get you paid very much. I\u2019m much better at abstract and symbolic work: writing, analysis, design, conceptualisation, and research. The kinds of jobs I can do usually require at least a bachelor\u2019s degree, so it was impossible for me to get a full-time job before I graduated from college. I paid my bills with government grants, scholarships, student loans, and whatever money I could get from paid internships and freelance work. I don\u2019t regret going to college and grad school, but I wish that I weren\u2019t forced to go into so much debt. Most of my tuition was covered through scholarships\u2014I took out loans to pay for rent, food, transportation, and other expenses. I haven\u2019t been able to build up savings because of all the loans and credit cards. I live paycheque to paycheque. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

But if I hadn\u2019t gone to college, I wouldn\u2019t be able to find a job at all despite being able to work. I can\u2019t do retail. I can\u2019t do food service. And with my back problems, construction, manufacturing, and maintenance are right out. I would have had to go on disability to cover my expenses and receive support. I don\u2019t want to go on disability, since I\u2019m able to work. It\u2019s a difficult slog to get disability payments, too; most people are denied on the first round. And if I were to get on disability, my housing choices would be limited. Social Security doesn\u2019t pay enough to cover the rent costs in most cities, and it takes years\u2014sometimes a decade or more\u2014to qualify for Section 8 housing vouchers. In a nursing home, I\u2019d lose my rights, autonomy, and dignity, so that\u2019s not an option, either. I\u2019ve been estranged from my family for fifteen years, so going back home to my parents wouldn\u2019t work. (Living with my parents was a lot like being in an institution anyway.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

There doesn\u2019t seem to be room in public policy for disabled people who can work and<\/em> need support at the same time, unless those disabled people are also poor. I do not want to be in poverty. I\u2019ve been struggling financially over the past few months, and I\u2019ve hated every minute. I was poor for most of my twenties, and it was miserable. I want to be professionally successful and get the support I need with things like housekeeping without breaking the bank. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently so, since every home-care benefit I can think of is means-tested. I meet the criteria right now, but what if I get a job that pays me well? (And by \u201cwell,\u201d I mean, \u201cI\u2019m able to pay my rent and bills and have a reasonable amount of disposable income.\u201d I don\u2019t expect to become rich, at least not in this lifetime.) Then I\u2019m left high and dry. <\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re a disabled member of the professional middle class\u2014or even the working poor\u2014it can hard to get the support you need if you don\u2019t have relatives or a spouse to do it for you. Although many disabled professionals make too much to qualify for benefits, they make too little to pay for services like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mf2_syndication":[],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","venue_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorised","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expectedly.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}