Q: Are there protection laws for back pay or funds received from SSDI that a person took and invested ?
An individual received SSDI,(not SSI) along with back pay, after a long struggle with the Social Security Adm., in mid-spring of '18. Upon receiving the back pay, this person, who doesn't have a 401k, nest egg, family support...etc., decided to invest a percentage of the money into stocks & such, in hopes of having stronger financial security in the future. If technically these funds are "owed" in back pay and the government doesn't tax it and the SNAP office couldn't count it as income, then why is it that when it's simply moved from one place to another, it must be accounted for? ( This individual could prove/show a timeline when the back pay was received and when the account was began.) By "be accounted for" means, this individual was/ is seeking other assistance (low income housing, discount dental check-ups , women's health...) & must claim this on applications. Aren't there laws protecting this back pay? Other ways to handle this? Thank you very much for your time.
A: THANK you for an excellent question. I believe you and I would get along great. The situation of which you speak is one of the more ridiculous scenarios of SSI in my opinion. However I am sure it makes sense to those that wrote the law. SSI benefits are based on need so if the person that receives the SSI benefits improves their economic situation (for example wins the lottery) the benefits are terminated. If the person is able to save their SSI benefits (rather than spending them) even the savings may be confiscated out of their bank account. Essentially there is no encouragement to improve their situation. I hope I've answered your question.
A: Because the way the law is written you can't have cash money in excess of a certain amount. However you can sometimes get waivers or "spend down plans" . As to why, the reason is that Republicans were worried poor people would live high and mighty so they wanted people to limit what they had in savings, which when you think about it doesn't make sense if the complaint is "they don't save enough"
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