The Coburn Blog

Well, Susan, Mom, and I had an appointment Friday afternoon, with a lady who deals with Social Security.

According to the information we were told, there are two types of Social Security benefits for the Blind and visually impaired.

SSD — Social Security Disability

SSDI — Supplemental Security Income

In order to qualify for either one of these, the entire household must make under $900 a month total, but, if a person is “stat” blind, which basically means, Statutory Blind, or 20/200, with less then 20 degrees of peripheral vision, or below, in the better eye with correction, that household can earn up to $1,500 / mo. but once you sign up for Social Security, you have to prove you are unable to work due to your disability in order to qualify. Then, once you get it, then the household can make up to that amount. Its confusing, I know, thats why we’ve had such a hard time with it over the years my mom and I.

They say, its easier to sign up with a lawyer, but who can afford one? esp without an income.

but the problem is, Since Susan already makes $1,000 /mo at KMC, thats before taxes by the way, the only way for me to get Social Security, is to quit my job, and prove I am unable to work due to my disability, which isn’t far from the truth actually, I mean I could do another job, but not the job I was doing at KMC, which I would have to find a job with a low enough pay that would only give me $300-400 a month at the most to stay under that $1,500/mo limit they set, which IMHO is a really crappy system, but according to this lady, that’s how it works.

So, because I’ve been loosing my eyesight, and Voc rehab wants me to attend Independent Living skills training, Mobility Training, AND goto college, which I have decided to attend Ivy Tech to finish my Associates and retake the classes required to get the A+, Network+, CISCO, and other such Certifications, while attending Indiana Tech at the same time to obtain my Bachelors.

This way, I’ll finish up my Associates, while getting the Certifications, but also, my Associates classes will then transfer to Indiana Tech, so that I can get my Bachelors faster. so when I’m done, I’ll have my Associates, Bachelors, and Certifications to go job hunting with, but until then, we’re going to try to get Social Security..

So, I have decided, in order to reach this goal, I have no choice but to leave my job for the time being.. I could get unemployment for 6 months while I wait for Social Security to start, but that would be counted as income towards that $1,500/mo limit, so I can’t do that, but in the meantime, Mom and I feel this is the best way to get all this done.

Besides, I have all these Medical bills, and medicines that I take, that won’t get paid if I don’t go on Medicare for awhile.. See, because our insurance at work is so crappy, we have to pay the premium for each prescription, so like, my eye drops alone cost me $80 /mo, imuran costs me $20 /mo, BP costs me $30/mo, so on and so forth. Plus all my past medical bills. So, until I get a better job after graduation, we feel this is the best way.

Its going to be rough these next few months not working and all, but once Social Security starts up, I shouldn’t have to worry about money for awhile, since I would make more on Social Security then I would working anyway, like $1,200 /mo around abouts, which is more then I make at KMC, so its worth doing for awhile until I can find a better job. I could just sign up for the SSD part, which isn’t based on income, but to even qualify for that, I would still have to prove I am unable to work. The SSD part only pays around $2-300 a month, SSDI is additional income, which I would need also to get my bills paid, because $200-300 a month isn’t enough to live on.

Also, I’ll need some work experience in the Computer industry, so while I’m going to school, I’m also going to volunteer at one of the elementary or high schools, or wherever I can volinteer at. I’m going to speak with the Computer department at the Community Schools system here in Warsaw, to see if they would accept any volunteers in their Computer department. That was an idea a friend of mine online had, and I think thats a good idea. That way, I can get some Computer job experience, while at the same time, getting my college degree, and volunteering won’t interfere with Social Security, so its a win win situation for me.

I just hope all goes as expected. I still have another couple months of independent living skills training to go thru, and mobility, and since the items Voc rehab got for me haven’t come in the mail yet, I have to wait for those until I can complete the most of my training.

which means, I won’t have an income at all for the next 6 months or so. I can accept donations, gifts, that kind of thing, but if I work, then thats considered income. I could even fix computers for people at home, putting up ads in the paper or around town, but in the meantime, my mom is going to help us out.. Once I am accepted for Social Security, they pay you back those previous months, but its just waiting that waiting period.

I know Susan is worried about how we’re going to pay our bills without my income, but if I don’t get Social Security, I can still always get unemployment for 6 months, my work did tell me that, and they’ve been nervous about me carrying a cane to work and were about to fire me over it anyway, until I told them I was going to check on Social Security, so in a way I am not really quitting, its more like I’m being fired, but in a nicer way I suppose.

For the last couple of weeks, because I started carrying a caine to work with me, I was not allowed to leave my area at work without an escort, which I felt was rather humiliating anyway, but it was their idea… I couldn’t help it though, because my eyesight has gotten so bad, that I can’t walk around without my caine anymore, so it was necessary, but the escort thing was their idea. Work was just afraid I would get hurt, so Susan had to start escorting me to the restroom, or anyplace outside my work area, which really was humiliating, so overall I feel this is the best thing to do

Besides, I’m not worried about it, I know that GOD will take care of us.. He’s always been there for me in the past when I had financial troubles, and I know in my heart he will continue to be there for me.. I think this was his plan for me to start with, for my sight to get worse so I could go back to school and find a job I can do rather I have sight or not, and computers is a Career field I can do regardless if I have sight or not.

I just think, it was destiny for me to leave my job now.. I don’t know why exactally, but i know that it was in his plan for me to go back to school full-time, and to go on layoff.. I think part of it is because, I know that if I stay at KMC the rest of my life, when Susan retires in the next 10 years, we’ll be in this situation anyway, so the best I can figure, is it was in his plan for me to go back to school now, to finish up my Associates, and go for my Bachelors, so that I can provide for my family after Susan retires, because in 10 years when Susan retires, if I was still at KMC, I wouldn’t be able to support both of us on $8 an hour there’s no way, we’re finding that out now, we aren’t able to do it now without my moms help..

that much I know, but I don’t know what I’ll be doing in the future. Could be computers, could be something else, I have no idea, but I know my calling is to go back to school now, so at least I’ll have my degree, and some computer experience, so that I can do whatever comes my way.

Its like my dad used to say “you can get anything u want with a Bachelors” and although I’m not sure if thats entirely true nowadays, with lots of people being unemployed and everything, I still think that is partially true.. I mean, look at my brother for instance, a Bachelors in Teaching, but he’s working in the Medical field making $60 grand a year, give or take, so I know a Bachelors pulls alot of weight in the business world, regardless of what I end up getting into.

Besides, with my vision impairment, its not like I can just goto any McDonalds or walmart and get any job. I tried working at McDonalds when I was 16, didn’t last but 2 weeks because I couldn’t see the grill orders that would come up on the little screen 30 ft away, and I tried working at Meijers too, and had similar issues seeing the little UPC numbers, and I definitely can’t see a cash register, had that problem on several past jobs, so seriously, what else would I do? At least with computers, they have voice and magnification software, but cash registers and UPC labels, they don’t have voice or magnification for those.

but I figure, if I don’t at least TRY to get my Bachelors, I don’t have a fighting chance at ALL of getting out of KMC, and into a job that better suits me..

Besides, what I told Social Security isn’t too far from the truth. I haven’t been able to do my job as well as I used to, because of loosing my eyesight, and since I seem to loose more everyday due to this Glaucoma they say I have now, I need to find a job I can do rather I have eyesight or not, and in Computers, I can do that even if I was totally blind,

Computers, they have speech software, and zoom software, for both Windows and Linux platforms. For Windows, there are many choices of course, but the best one is Zoomtext, and for Linux, there’s an open source project called Beryl, which is hosted over at SourceForge that is fairly popular these days, which also has zooming, modified contrast for visually impaired, or for the totally blind they have speech synthesizers now. so in computers, sighted or not, there are many options.

I know Debian Etch for instance, and knoppix too, both have Braille support, but my independent living skills trainer was saying, because speech recognition is getting so good now, a person no longer has to learn braille anymore, so there not going to teach me braille as my vision worsens, because computers have scanners to read your bills to you, speech to read the screen and websites for you, all kinds of stuff, so even if I do go completely blind, its a career I can still do, so I think it will work out in the end, because it doesn’t matter the field I get into, Networking, Web Design, Technical Support, all those fields I could do, but with a Bachelors I’m pretty much guaranteed whatever I want. Even if they don’t accept Indiana Tech degrees, the A+ Certifications I’m getting will really pull alot of weight in the business world, because it will prove to employers that, yes, I am able to see a Computer Screen, which is usually the first question I get asked when I apply for a job always.

take care everyone