THE POVERTY TRAP
When I was applying for social security disability, an 8 year wait, I was told that I am not permitted to earn monies while waiting for the disability decision! I completed my first disability application in 94 but didn't win until 02.
The "prohibition" to earn monies; implies that applicants are supposed to live on the street, or have a rich relative care for them. (I know many people who are being cared for by their families financially) For part of the time I was applying for disability I was collecting unemployment. The unemployment people have a rule that "you must make 2 job contacts a week to keep collecting unemployment" The unemployment rule is "you must look for work" and the SSA rule is "you are forbidden from seeking employment."
The only people I knew who were winning their disability cases were winning because their parents were paying for their apartments and totally supporting them. So the people who need disability monies the least, get it the fastest! Maddening!
I've been very despondent as a result. I awaken each morning with dread and fear. I'm in work mode nearly 24/7.
I still have some city fines to pay as well. One was the "car abandonment" fee, (due to my 03 inability to pay for the car repair) and one is a 32 dollar parking ticket that has accrued to 800 dollars! This is really unfair , yet there is no point in fighting because I'll never win.
I could move out of state to escape the fines. BUT if I move out of state, and drop my apt. I''m at very high risk of yet another episode of homelessness.
Staying at my apt. could get me killed. If I install a deadbolt lock, management will break it, then send me a lease infraction.
If I put all of my belongings in storage, keep paying the rent on my current subsidized apt. and go to a safe house, I'll be accused of welfare fraud, as you aren't allowed to have a second address!
If I stay where I live, my belongings will continue to disappear and my life will still be at risk.
In 95, my one bedroom apt. in Hampden cost 400 dollars, that same apt. now costs 850, and wages are stagnant. Poor people are imprisoned, and no matter how intelligent they might be they face nearly impossible odds.
I know this piece may be a tad bit redundant, but so is poverty.
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2 comments:
Repetition is also persistence. Repetition is usually necessary to communicate. People don't often get it the first time. Other people werent' listening or reading before.
The $32 fine expanding to $800 is an example of injustice and abusive taxation, I believe. There should be a statute of limitations on fines for infractions that happened years ago. At some point, there should be amnesty. People deserve an opportunity to have the slate wiped clean, to get a second chance. (And a third, fourth and fifth, if necessary.)
Here in Arizona I got 400 $ fine for expired tags. Don't even have car anymore, but required to keep paying!
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