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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    5

    Default Student Loans and SSI

    I've read the thread regarding SSI & Student loans, and seems to me like I'm in a "rock & a Hard Place Situation." I need to get specific here so please bear with me I will try to keep this short.

    Spouse is disabled and on SSI/Medicaid. Without SSI no medicaid. I'm in college online (spouse needs require my physical presence for help nearly every day so no campus school option) I have Stafford Un subsidized and subsidized loans and pell grant. School says I can still borrow additional funds from U.S. Loan, however, this would be to help out with the bills while I'm in school. (SSI will count any job income against her benefits and jeopordize her Medicaid) Can I borrow the additional funds without getting her benefits cut back even more? (They've already cut her benefits in half since this past year due to my one month job last year working for Census.)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    California
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    Default Re: Student Loans and SSI

    If you only worked one month at the Census and she lost 1/2 of her benefits for a year, something is wrong. Either you misunderstood or SSI has the wrong information from her. It is also untrue that if you have any wages at all that it will be counted against her benefits. First SSI subtracts out an allocation for you, for any minor children that live with you, any court ordered child support you pay, applies the earned income exclusion and the unearned income exclusion. After those subtractions and divisions, whatever is remaining is considered deemed income to her and does reduce her SSI benefits. But generally, anyone who qualifies for $1 from SSI still gets the same Medicaid that someone who gets $674 in SSI. And, when a spouse is working, the SSI can be reduced, but with the earned income exclusion, the reduction is $1 for every $2 over the allocation and exempt amount so going to work will always mean more money for the household. Now if those wages become unemployment benefits, then the reduction is dollar for dollar.

    Loans are excluded from income. But money from a loan that you deposit into a bank account or keep in cash at home can be considered a resource the first day of the month following the month the loans are received. The couple resource limit is $3000. So if you receive a check for $5000 in borrowed funds that you intend to use over 5 months to pay expenses, the first day of the month following the receipt, she will be over the $3000 resource limit and eligible for zero SSI until the funds are reduced to under $3000. And that applies even if the money is kept in home in cash to hide it from SSI.

    I think it makes more sense for you to go to work and earn $700 (before taxes) a month. You don't increase your debt. You earn Social Security credits. You get a work history that you can reference when you go looking for work. But she needs to talk to someone at SSA to confirm the dollar amount I gave you and needs to make sure she reports this income every month.

    But I am curious. If she can't be left alone while you go to school, how are you ever going to be able to go to work while in college or when you graduate? What is the point of going to college then and incurring debt that you can't pay back?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    5

    Default Re: Student Loans and SSI

    thank you very much for the information you provided. I need to clarify a couple of points you made so I can make the proper decision. And again thank you for taking the time to provide details.

    >>If you only worked one month at the Census and she lost 1/2 of her benefits for a year, something is wrong. Either you misunderstood or SSI has the wrong information from her. << We were having difficulties at the time so we temporarily seperated for a couple of months. The reason given by SSA was that we had failed to report the income. I was angry about this because they seem to have had this information prior to calling us for interview. Seemed at the time that the only way to fix this mess was to live seperately due to my income from the Census Job. Her benefits went from $605.00 to three hundred something thant up to $400.00 and change within a two month period. She re-joined me then in August here in Florida. Two months later SSA again reduced her benefits to $82.00 then after some very serious complaining from me brought it back up to current level of $360.00. They claimed that that was because of my unemployment compensation from the Census Job. They stated they do the allocation at a higher level for Unemployment then for regular work. (????) They also claimed that we had failed to report the income. Yet they always seemed to have the information prior to interview. Seemed to me like they were more concerned with catching us in a lie then in the actual financial information. Also since it is her SSI and not mine, I'm not allowed to ask questions on her behalf without her permission. The caseworkers always seem more interested in finding ways to cut back or cut off then helping with information. That is why I'm using this forum instead of calling SSA. I just don't trust them.

    >>But I am curious. If she can't be left alone while you go to school, how are you ever going to be able to go to work while in college or when you graduate?<< What I mean by left alone is that we do not have an automobile (can't afford it or the insurance) Ergo, grocery shopping requires me and my backpack on a bicycle. Her disability is severe osteo-arthritis in her hands. Ergo heavy soup pots and other misilaneous things that require grasping and holding can become a problem for her. Think about it. If you could not close your hands into a fist how would that affect your day to day functioning. Yes it sound petty but in reality it's the difference between boiling a pot of water and scalding yourself dropping the boiling pot. It's the difference between working in a store and stocking items, and losing the job because something gets dropped and broken. And so on and so forth. So yes there are a lot of things I need to help her with.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    California
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    Default Re: Student Loans and SSI

    SSA does have access to earned income information - but not any earlier than three months after the wages are paid. And sometimes not until a year after the wages are paid. Same with unemployment. By the time they get the information, the SSI recipient is overpaid. More work for SSA. There are computer matching programs. Anything the IRS can find will be reported to SSA for SSI recipients. If the dollar amounts are off by a certain amount, then the office gets an alert and a long list of cases of SSI recipients with the mismatch. That's how SSA knows before you told them. But that also tells me that your wife didn't report your wages the month after you worked because then there would be no mismatch. If you worked in March and she reported it in April, then her May check would have been reduced. The reason the staff seems more interested in catching her in a lie is that it appears to me that she has failed to report your wages. So in doing so, she created an overpayment which is again more work. SSA has a responsibility And it is also possible that she didn't fully report that you were separated in a timely manner. I will tell you that it is easy to remove a spouse from a record, it is more work to add a spouse to a record.

    It is probably true that SSA staff doesn't like to see claimants who fail to report, over and over and over. Sadly, it happens all the time.

    If she tries to think of reporting events as the job duties she has in order to get an SSI check every month, she may find it easier to stomach. We all have to do job duties that we don't necessarily like.

    The general rule is that income from one month determines payment two months later. There are exceptions. Wages you earn in June reduce her SSI in August. You may want August's income to only affect August, but that takes a crystal ball. How much are you going to make each month for the rest of the year? There are also cutoffs and limitations created by the US Treasury on when checks can be increased or reduced on the first of each month.

    The earned income exclusion is the first $65 and 1/2 the remainder. There is also a $20 general exclusion. So if you had a paycheck with GROSS earnings of $500, the countable earned income is $207.50. But for unemployment, pensions, non-wage income, there is only a $20 exclusion so a $500 unemployment check, $480 would be countable. It is an incentive to go to work. Then there is an allocation made for you and your minor children and your court ordered child support. The rest is considered income to her.

    I will say this again. In caps. THE TWO OF YOU WILL HAVE MORE MONEY OVERALL IF YOU GO TO WORK. Her SSI only has to be $1 for her to keep Medicaid.

    Her SSI may have also been reduced when you were separated because of in-kind income. How did she pay all her food and shelter bills when the two of you were separated or did her family help her?

    I can understand problems with grasping affecting many activities of daily life. But she doesn't need to lift heavy soup pots ever and maybe shouldn't have babies that she can't lift. And without transportation, it would be difficult to get bags of groceries home. But it doesn't sound to me like she can't be left alone for part of the day when you go to work or school.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
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    5

    Default Re: Student Loans and SSI

    Hello Janke: Sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner but had a computer crash and lost lot's of data. (username password stuff) I appreciate your detailed answers very much but I'm still very confused about this system. I have a couple of questions about your last post to this thread. Again thanks very much for taking the time to answer so much confusion on my part.

    >> How much are you going to make each month for the rest of the year?<<
    SSA was notified that the Census job was temporary and only for 30 days, before I left SC.


    >>If you only worked one month at the Census and she lost 1/2 of her benefits for a year, something is wrong. Either you misunderstood or SSI has the wrong information from her. <<

    Actually I attempted to make full notice of this stuff before we split apart. I informed SSA (at there office) that a: I was leaving, and b: all information on Census Job. the nature of the Census Payroll was a mess. All the financial verification SSA needed from Census had literally NOT been processed and would not be processed for nearly thirty more days due to the ennormous number of temporary employees for the 2010 Census. I repeatedly tried to explain this to SSA, I asked my Senator (Bill DiMint of SC) to contact SSA AND Census to get some inter-agency expedition on this and so on before I even left SC. Then in July after I had already left SC for FL my spouse called me to tell me they'd cut her SSI from 607.00 to three hundred something. they may be three months behind, but all the confusion from there end put me three months behind just trying to get the proper dates back to them. So they were made aware of my Census Job Information before we split apart for that two month period.

    >>The earned income exclusion is the first $65 and 1/2 the remainder. There is also a $20 general exclusion. So if you had a paycheck with GROSS earnings of $500, the countable earned income is $207.50. But for unemployment, pensions, non-wage income, there is only a $20 exclusion so a $500 unemployment check, $480 would be countable. It is an incentive to go to work. Then there is an allocation made for you and your minor children and your court ordered child support. The rest is considered income to her.<<

    Let me see if I am understanding what you're saying... my unemployment check is for $150.00 p/wk. So they would deduct $20.00 from her monthly SSI check?

    I am confused about something you stated:
    >> "I think it makes more sense for you to go to work and earn $700 (before taxes) a month. You don't increase your debt. You earn Social Security credits. You get a work history that you can reference when you go looking for work"<<

    I am currently getting $632.00 per month from unemployment. That and what she is getting from SSI right now (due to non reporting from previous year not Census) is only $360.00 per month now. So how would me earning $700.00 per month change anything?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    California
    Posts
    1,045

    Default Re: Student Loans and SSI

    I think you need to talk to your local office who can do the actual inputs.

    When you were paid by the Census office, didn't they give you a paycheck with a paycheck stub detailing how you were paid? That is the best evidence. Did you throw it away?

    No you misunderstood me about the $20 general exclusion and how deemed income is computed.

    So SSI is being reduced by both your current income from unemployment and recovery of an overpayment for unreported income from 2010? My remark about wages was that it made more sense to me that someone go to work and earn $700 a month to avoid borrowing money that will have to be paid back at a later date. Using money made today to pay today's bills makes more sense than taking money you might earn tomorrow to pay back the loan you used to pay today's bills. Going into debt is just pushing your financial freedom further into the future; some people never dig out.

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