SSI/Disability???

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I'm new here (as you can see by my post count.) And Ill get a formal introduction up soon but I was just wondering how many people here are on SSI (or whatever it is called in other countries),are you at all worried about it costing you later on in life, and (without putting any answer yes or no in this question) do you think it hurts the aspie community to admit were disabled.

The reason I am wondering is I am currently going to college and theres no way I could balance a school load with a work load (especcially seeing as how I dont drive due to no car and due to unless Im in a smaller car Im scared to do it didnt have my drivers license at all until I was 17 1/2 and just started really driving about 6 or so months before that.) So Im having to go way in debt to pay for college and since thats typical Im a little hesitent to receive any money for this but if it can help me pay for college and get a good career.... Its just I really dont want to be a leach on society or anything like that especcially seeing as how I probably could work if I had no other choice and Im going on and on here so Ill just end it there.
Ender

I am getting SSI now, while I'm in college now. Yes, I think it can hurt you later in life. But with the work load and everything, no way I can balance school with work either. I don't think it's hurt to tell some people we're disabled, because we all are different and have problems. I too can't drive at this time. I do not think it's a leech on society at all, if we need it. Because in the future I will be trying to get a career job after college.

Hiya! You've still got me beat - I didn't get my license until I was 27, because of fear...try explaining *that* to peers/co-workers/relatives, etc.

I'm on SSDI instead of SSI, since I was officially disabled before the age of 22 and can now collect off of my father's Social Security since he has passed away now.

However, I am not on SSDI for Aspergers since I am currently going through the diagnostic process. But in Missouri, Aspergers is not considered a disability as to receiving SSI/SSDI. I still have disability from when I was misdxed with Schizophrenia a couple years ago.

I'm on disability...

I spend half the money on books so it's like I'm in university already...

I must be on what Sophist is on. I was on SSI from the age of 19 to 23ish and then switched to Disabled Adult Child when my father retired (the same benefits happen with retirement or death I think).

I don't really understand what it would hurt when I get older, given that without it there is much less chance of me getting older. There needs to be some other system (not that I know what it looks like, there's just got to be something better), but under the current standards of "competitive employment" there's no way on earth I'd be able to work, and generally the alternatives for people who can't work and don't get benefits are pretty bad.

I'm on a disability pension if that's what you are talking about? And I still haven't got my license, even though my younger sister has.

I don't really agree with the concept of licenses. (And I think I said as much on a different thread) Too many rules! The man keeps trying to bring me down! *shakes fist in the air*

The biggest problem I've found with not having a license is that everybody expects you to have one as a form of ID. I can't use my passport as ID either, because I don't have a current one, and I don't really feel like forking out the 50 something dollars for an ID card.

Then again, I pretty much avoid all circumstances where I would be required to show ID. If I need ID then that's pretty much a sign that there are... too many rules man!

Hmmmmm? What is your disability that
gets you a SSI? Is it the AS? if not
what? What is your college target?
Hmmmmmm?
 


What are your disabilties for this SSI? Is it
you AS? if not, what? Hmmmmmm?
What is your college degree targeted at?
 

What is the reason for this late driving?
Hmmmmm? AS? if not what?
 


How has effected your life, this mis-DX?
You come off very intelligent and I see
science or doctor as your college target.

Hmmmm? Since you are on SSI-type setups,
how does this affect these college outcomes
from your degree target?
 


Hmmmmm? $ on books to read?
$ on books for school? Are you planning
becoming, or are a student????????

AS? Is this were the disability $ comes
from? If not, what?
 


I see this view to a degree! I work to keep
occupied and have done so since 1984. I may
be minimally housed, dis-housed but it is too
keep me sane and focused so I don't go begging
to agencies. I would like your view on these
agencies?

Hmmmmmmm?
Thankyou all for your sincerity,
I hope I am not being intrusive
but this is a very much neglected
topic on this forum and I am curious!

Sincerely,
Ghosthunter

In reply to Ghosthunter.

About the agencies -- the ones that provide "services" -- I truly detest them and what they stand for. They not only run the services I receive, they run institutions of all sizes from the large state institutions to the institutions-of-one that are done in the name of 'supported living' but in which the power dynamics are not much different from the larger ones. These are the agencies that often look the other way when people are being hurt, or pass the blame around in circles so that nobody has to deal with their responsibility for whoever is being beaten/starved/killed/abused/controlled/whatever. The power in these agencies is not with the people receiving services, no matter what fancy words they use to claim that it is. So I detest these agencies for the most part.

On the other hand, in the current system, I don't have many alternatives. I need significant assistance with nearly every aspect of daily living. I have nobody outside an agency able to provide that for me. The efforts to "teach me skills" haven't changed much of what's going on, for the reason that it's not the knowledge of the skills that keeps me from performing them. (It's a difficulty with the interplay of perception, thought, and action.) I would not be likely to survive long on the streets, or even in an apartment with no services. I did survive in an apartment with no formal services for awhile, but the effort of walking me through every tiny step in various tasks completely wiped out the capacities of the (autistic) friend who was doing it and still did not allow me to get the proper food/water/medication/sleep/etc. I have no desire to go back to hunger, dehydration, etc.

So I use these agencies because I have to. But I don't condone them except as the least awful alternative in my case. (And for people who have viable alternatives open to them, I fully understand why they'd choose the alternatives.)

Every time someone applies for SSI or the like it takes many months if not years to get on it, and for most people you will be rejected 2-3 times befor being accepted. By that time your college education will be over with, try going out and getting a grant or a student loan insted.

I am better off being flat broke (currently $1k in debt) with no income than going on SSI. It would be hard to explain away to a potential employer and if I were to start the process now, I would get a yes/no answer just in time to be finished with my tech school and have the credentials to go get a real job that pays at least twice as much as SSI.

Ghosthunter,

Well, the misdiagnosis was hard simply because it wasn't accurate and didn't explain a lot of things about me. But then again, without the diagnosis of Schizophrenia, I don't know financially where I'd be. Since if I had been more accurately diagnosed with Aspergers, I wouldn't have the money I have now. So, to receive this aid which I need, I am content with that former misdiagnosis



As long as the amount of money I am getting doesn't have a significant enough effect on my financial aid awards {as in not cover my tuition) I should think it would have little effect. I have known for years I cannot hold a regular job. But I think I would make an excellent, eccentric, and well-read university professor. This job I feel I can handle. I have always felt more accepted and comfortable around the uni campus. Hey, probably a fair percentage of the professors I will be working with will be Aspies (higher than in the general population, that is). I need a job where I get paid for getting lost in my head from time to time. A university setting seems perfect and it has been my longest planned form of job/career (since about 7th/8th grade).

Therefore, if I am able to find such a job, I will no longer have the need to be on SSDI. But while I am going through school and haven't the degrees to even apply for said job, I will happily remain on SSDI as long as I can.

Hmmm... In my family university professor is a "regular job" (another one is an artist). I look with awe and utmost respect at people who work as, say, store cashiers. I never tried such job, but I am sure that I wouldn't last for longer than an hour. I am too anti-social, absentminded and physically unfit for such a job. People who do it appear to me super-human. In general, any job that requires contact with customers, or sustained physical effort, is definitely above my abilities. That rules out 95% of available types of jobs. Yet I had no problem finding a niche for myself - programming. After working several years in corporate environment with mixed results, I decided to stick to academia, exactly for reasons that Sophist specified.

Hmmmmm? What kind of progamming?
Their is software game programming?
Their is other types I cannot think of at this
moment! How long have you been progamming?

I have tried doing Linux, and Unix and find
programming and math go hand and hand
for me, "I couldn't save my life doing it".

I don't have the code and math aptitude that
most programmers seem to do, contrary to
mythology that autistic, and especially AS
folks should be good to great at it.

Hmmmmm?
Ghosthunter

Well, I do have SSI which we tried a couple of times but finally picked up a year ago.

In my opinion I know that they qualify me as disabled but then I know I do have a form of disability (social one) to be exact. But then I feel that I really shouldn't be having it at all since I don't want to consider myself "disabled" only to see that if I didn't have SSI, then I would feel like I have nothing to help myself. I know if I did find work, then I would have a reduction in SSI payments but I still feel uncomfortable doing so.

Hey Ender's dragon,
Are you named after Ender from Ender's Game or is it just your first name is Andrew and you liked that nickname?