Education should go with award of SSI/SSD

by Dianrez
(Rochester NY)

It seems to me that SSI/SSD is simply processed and given out without instructions as to what it is FOR. A handout it isn't. A stipend to live on so one doesn't have to work it isn't. An allowance so a kid can buy games it isn't.

Essentially it is a bridge to a better future. For students it enables them to stay in school and graduate so they don't have to drain family income or divide their time between studies and long hours of work for low wages, if they can find any job at all because of discriminatory hiring. For low income families it enables them to buy services and programs for their disabled children, or to keep them at home instead of institutionalizing them. It can pay for additional batteries, speech therapy, physical therapy, night school supplementary courses, mentoring, and parent training or family counseling.

It is meant to be a short term bridge that is to end when the recipient grows up, leaves home, goes to work, or otherwise is able to support themselves.

It is a dangerous thing because it can fool one into lifelong dependency, into thinking they cannot work for better income, that they have no future because the United States Government says so with that check. It is not harmless; just look at what the welfare system did to destroy the Black family structure and keep their children down in the poor section of town. SSI/SSDI has the capacity to destroy the foundation of the Deaf community, historically a strong, cohesive and proud community that has higher employment rates than other disablity groups.

Along with instructions, it should be administered with social workers who reinforce the purpose of the check and who can take it away if a student quits school and stays home longer than warranted. It can be taken away from abusers who manipulate their family or work so they can collect it. It can be taken away from drug abusers. It is not meant to shelve functional people in order to keep them out of the workforce.

On the other hand, it can be used to employ people in raising foster children, nursing severely disabled children, and in caring for the elderly. It can be used to create jobs in rehabilitation, therapy and support services by requiring recipients to buy these services instead of useless and abusive items. In this capacity it would have to be increased beyond just food and lodging. To get more money, people would have an incentive to purchase services that better their outlook in the near future, and to become providers of these services through training.