What do you do in this situation?

A.S.A.P. (as short as possible) Explain what you would do if you were in this situation?
You are out of work, broke, can't find work that would sustain a roof over head, slightly disabled, denied S.S. assistance, denied medical assistance, forced to move without stable income if any at all.
What do you do?

Re: What do you do?

Go rob a bank then set on the curb outside the bank and wait to be arrested. Plead guilty and let the state take care of you.

Re: What do you do?

I don't understand the forced to move part, but as for the rest I'd work for a college (IT department, for example). For many reasons, some of these are:
- Great disability acceptance.
- Relatively financially stable (low layoff potential)
- Mondo-great benefits plans & super-low medical costs and full medical coverage.
- Fairly fun jobs.

And the #1 reason (just joking about this one)...
- It's academia man; Broke is relative. Nobody has less in their bank account than a history professor! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Re: What do you do?

Spill a coffee in your lap and sue McDonald's. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif No, but seriously....is there a personal reason that you are asking this?

Dan

Re: What do you do?

Live in a friend's basement for awhile with whatever I could save from my previous life. (Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, burned it.)

Re: What do you do?

1. Take a job that would sustain a tent over my head or go to family and friends. 2. Take a job with a low pay but showed opportunity for advancement. 3. Punt, become a tree hugger or pacifist and protest for a living.

What are these jobs? Fast food and Construction are the first two that come to mind.

Re: What do you do?

I would contact a private attorney that specializes in getting people with disabilities on Social Security. Then contact your local Vocational Rehabilitation Services assistance group ( LRS in Louisiana for example ) to help get a job.

Look up Social Services in your local Yellow Pages for an info referral line they can give you phone numbers to local agencies that can help with this sort of situation.

Re: What do you do?

Roy,
Don't even tempt me at this point! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I do really value my freedom more then that, more than many would even consider to venture.

Binky,
I was trying to keep this simple but you asked. I am living with my exwife. She asked me to move back to California after she kicked me out when I was injured and I stood in her way in a door way and bumped my chest into her three times. We now have a restraining order that neither of us asked for and this has held me up with the paperwork to get some medical help for fear off being incarcerated again. Needless to say the workmen's compensation went to hell because neither my mother or my ex-wife would allow me to stay with them long enough to be trained in another skill I would be capable of doing.
Besides staying with either of them while going to school learning a new carrier I would have had the option of staying in my truck. This would have left me with no phone, mailing address and only the state parks for showers in the area. Between gas, food, insurance and the other necessities of life the option of living in my truck was shot. Workman's comp sent me to Missouri (the only place I could find to live) to look for work as a fishing rod builder and that didn't pan out for work but it was a place to live for a year. Most of my investors completely bailed out on me in Missouri and some were making money off of the fishing rods I was building from my patent and not putting the money back into the project. Things got ugly in Missouri for these reasons and after god knows how many I am sorrys came from the ex I moved back to California and things were looking good at first but employment opportunities have been nil and she is giving me the boot again.

The laser fishing rods that must adhere to a certain qualities are a little high priced for most folks and this is something that I have been working on for a long while but any viable income from them would be in the future still.

I worked construction most of my life, thirteen years as an electrical worker and I am unable to do the work any longer. The reason I am not able to continue with my career is that I got nerve damage in my lower back that is not serious enough to operate on and just bad enough I cannot do the electrical/construction work any longer. During the physical therapy part of my back injury recovery I was given an inguinal hernia by the therapist. She put the electro-massage thingies on my back with some melted ice as a conductor and zapped me well enough I sat up very quickly pulling the muscles in my stomach and giving me the hernia.

PercaDan
No time for the lawsuit and I don't really like Mc Donald's coffee anyway. This is personal, welcome to my life and your welcome to leave anytime it becomes to much to comprehend.

Thomas,
I was not exactly popular and most of my few friends have left the area. My biggest trick is retaining as much as possible. Believe me a basement is not beyond me and garages have been among my previous addresses not to mention a truck and a couple of cars. The big difference this time around is I am without a job. I have seen the movie myself a couple of times before.

Diesel Dave,
I have been applying for jobs that my dog would be able to get if I had one. I would take a job that didn't have one stinking opportunity to get started with; I could always quit as soon as something better came along. Usually politics get in my way of advancement anyway, I just don't play the game.
I am left to think the past couple of years I have not had to file taxes has something to do with my employment problems. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif I have never had this much trouble finding work and being limited in my physical capabilities limited the opportunities as well.

Tree,
Thanks,
Social Security just turned me down. Figures you know the day I went for the doctors appointment the hernia was not as large as it is most of the time. We could afford vegetables that week and I guess that cleared me out at the wrong time. I am going to have to file an appeal and see how it goes I guess.
Are these attorneys pro bono? My freaking workmen's comp attorney that dealt with my back injury took long enough that the 24k I was awarded a year after I agreed to it was twiddled down to $6,000 after debts were paid and he got his share. Not exactly an even trade for giving up a career I went to school for and work at for thirteen years.

Re: What do you do?

Wylie,

Have you considered retitling your post in order to get more responses?

The reason I say that is because when I read "what do you do" I assumed you were getting people to post their line of work and I almost passed it by.

Even a simple change to "what WOULD you do?" or "what would you do if this happened to you?" could have a power to attract more responses because it puts things on a personal basis and even contains a bit of a challenge. I know that I would immediately have opened the post if it had the second title.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have any suggestions that haven't been mentioned but the more Flashaholics that you can attract, the better the chances of getting helpful responses.

Brightnorm

Re: What do you do?

Wylie, may I suggest going to school? Maybe grabbing another degree through the JC route? Or adding to your knowledge in general. You'll get assistance if you don't have a job and are poor, and in most situations, you can get assistance for housing through the university. You may even go the work-study route as well...

Just a suggestion...

Re: What do you do?

Wylie,

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I've been unemployable too and it's not a happy place. I worked retails sales on commission in a music store during that low time (which turned out to be lower than minimum wage) and I wouldn't wish that on anybody!

I'm thinking that perhaps you're a prime candidate to become a home inspector. Having moved a lot in the last few years into and out of a lot of little houses that needed work I have hired a lot of these people. Your experience with construction and electrical wiring makes you perfect for this kind of thing. I think that electrical do-it-yourselfers are one of the MAJOR things that a home inspector has to look for. I've uncovered some really scary wiring in the past!

There are training programs and companies that will hire you and help get you trained I think. Any city with a good housing market also has a good home inspector market.

You do have to be able to clime up into attics and occationally slide into a crawl space, but the speed isn't critical and you can take your time. If your problems wouldn't keep you from climbing a ladder then you may be able to do this. And like I said, even if you couldn't work in a crawlspace as part of a construction project, you might be able to do it if you could take your time and when you weren't actually doing any serious work in there.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and keep us up to date on the progress! And stay away from physical therapists, they are not good for you /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Re: What do you do?

If you get a lawyer to get you Social Security and the lawyer wins. Social Security will usually pay you from the date you originally applied. Typically the lawyer will only take 25% of the money paid to you from the date you applied until now.

The lawyer should tell you up front how much he/she will be paid and how. You will have to sign a retainer with a lawyer before you owe them any money. You could always just go in for a consultant with an attourney to see what they could do and for how much.

And I'm with Brightnorm if you want some more responses you might want to change the title. I also thought this was a "what do you do for a living" kind of thread. CPF members have proven to be an amazing resource on a variety of subjects. Good luck in whatever you choose.

Re: What do you do?

And Wylie, if you're still in California, you can contact one of the numerous legal aid services (like Central California Legal Services) that take on SS-based cases without charge if their clients are low-income and qualify...

Re: What do you do?

If you work at a college (you mentioned electrical/construction) you may be able to get a Construction Coordinator (essentially like a general contractor but there's a whole staff of you who'd work for the school). That way you could:

1. Use your electrical/construction experience.
2. Not have to do the labor (so your dis. won't matter)
3. Usually take at least one course/year entirely for free.
4. Get humongous tuition discounts at that & other local colleges.

It sounds like I'm stuck on the idea. I think it's a pretty good idea but also I just may be not swift enough to come up with some other good ones.

Re: What do you do?

Wylie... I'll also add my good luck to you with whatever life ends up dishing up to you. The only advice that I can offer is to remember that no matter where you go, you bring yourself. As you yourself have admitted, you've burned alot of bridges and aren't willing to play the game. Perhaps you need to rethink all that... for now.

Re: What do you do?

Wylie: Kalifartnia DENIES all disability claims for SSI and SocSec up to 8 times! The only thing you can do, is appeal before an Administrative Law Judge. His decision is final with no appeal possible. He almost always overturns the State's decision. I got this info from a Socsec Claims Rep when I inquired for a friend of mine out there. The State does NOT care if you are a Quadraplegic: they automatically deny the claim. The legislation that Clinton signed into law, was supposed to fix this problem. However, all SocSec offices are Autonimous throughout the country.

Waiting for your case to go before the judge can take 3 years, with another 3 years waiting for the Socsec Office to obey the judge's order. The Medina County (Medina, Ohio) office has a nasty habit of refusing to obey Court Orders.

Federal Law requies that you must be unable to hold down a job for 1 year, in order to qualify as disabled.

IF the doctor(s) do not send in the data that is NEEDED, then the State cannot make a true decision. This happened in my one friend's case, here in ohio.

The Feds do not make the decision. The State's Dept. or Bureau of Disability Determination makes the decision, based on the data that they get from State Doctors or your own.

Read through the decision and see if the reason for denial is NOT why you applied. IF this is the Case, then one or more Doctors did NOT send their data to the State (get on their tails for this).

If you do have to go through a hearing before a judge, and the doctors have NOT sent data in, THEN have them and their records subpeonaed. They may drop you as a patient, but, they will learn a lesson.

Re: What do you do?

Brightnorm,
Thanks; I just changed the title of the post. Just as what I had told the people helping when I was doing electrical no question or suggestion should be considered stupid until it proven to be. I can understand what you mean about the title and careers.

Falcon FX,
The colleges sound like an option that before this post I had no idea of. I am not to sure I want to get into any student loan situations but the option of a new career sure does tempt me. It has been over 2 years since I have had a real job and I am ready to try just about anything that will put me back on a level field again. Work to study and get paid at the same time, hell yeah!

James S,
Thanks, I like the home inspector idea as I walk in building and I am checking to make sure building codes are up to par without being paid anyways. It is just a habit I guess, a lot of the time the persons walking through stores or whatever buildings looking up at the ceiling is some sort of a construction worker checking everybody else's work out. Its funny my fellow workers and myself used to laugh at this because a lot of construction workers do exactly the same thing when they walk into buildings. The area I am in now is growing fast and real estate is moving fast. Some classes would be in order as I am not up to speed on HVAC but that is to be expected I would guess. I got to get out and see how the competition is doing in this field I guess.
You know the best therapy I got for my back injury I had to pay for myself. Acupuncture really works and as far as I know Workmen's comp will not pay for it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Falcon FX,
Thanks,
I may just have to look into something like the legal avenue. I am getting real tired of being screwed out of what I had paid into for years while other people less needy bleed the system dry.

Binky,
There was a time that I was looking into a general contractors license to just do maintenance and small construction jobs. I got tired of my boss making three times what I was and doing hardly if any of the work. A lot of that work gets a little physical for me these days but I could be a superintendent like you have mentioned. I am kind of sliding toward the home/building inspection end of the construction as this could utilize some of my past experience as and I tend to do this type of thing without being paid anyway.

Sasha,
Thanks,
No I am not too proud to bite my lip ever once in a while and have had to for years. In not playing the political games people play with employers it does have its advantages sometimes although most of the time it really sucks.
It turns out I was being blamed for a lot of bad things that were happening at one company and I wasn't real happy working there because of the politics so I got another job that sucked even worse. When I went back to the original job the boss told me that I had been blamed for a lot when I left but the weird thing was is that the problems I was being blamed for still persisted within the company. The boss offered to have me work for him again as a snitch and regular employee but that is just not my style so I took the job again and it was understood that if anything I seen would jeopardize the company then it was time to set things straight.

Charles Bradshaw,
It seems as though I have heard this before. The whole time I was trying to get the settlement for my back injury the doctor was holding up the process as well. He wouldn't send the MRI's that proved that I was injured to my attorney. I have allowed the Social Security office to open my medical records and both of the doctors I have been sent to seem to know nothing about my medical history. This sure fits suit and makes no sense what so ever.

I have been thinking of going into a clinic and having the hernia looked by another doctor so I will have another doctor's opinion. With an appeal and the other doctor's opinion I may just end up getting this thing fixed. I was given the hernia by workmen's compensation therapists so maybe an attorney could get that taken care of at the same time. I'm not looking to make any money I just want to be able to get back to work and get a real life going again.

Not that I have anything to say worth mentioning, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif , but I just wanted to let you know I wish you get back on your feet again real soon!

Wylie,

What state did you suffer your original work comp injury in? And in which state did you receive the PT that caused your hernia?

Ordinarily I wouldn't ask but since you've brought up your bad back, what exactly is wrong with it? The level of your disability could have some impact on any pre-employment physicals that you go through after receiving a conditional job offer.

Re: What do you do?

Wylie,

First my apologies for trying to inject a little (very) humor. Actually, we're in a similar situation, though I have to admit that I'm fairing better than you. After 26 years of being an auto mechanic, my right hand has developed carpal tunnel like symptoms and Washington L&I has denied the claim on the basis that it wasn't work related (Yeah...right, that's why it started getting better after I quit wrenching). Fortunately for me, I had a windfall around that time and started retraining myself in computer networking. Unfortunately, the industry collapsed half way through my classes so now I find myself trying to learn how to day-trade in the worst bear market since the Great Depression. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif Enough about my trials and tribulations.

Now, back to your problems. When I was in school, HVAC seemed to be the only growth area at the time and due to the record low interest rates, it probably still is. With your background, it seems to be an area that you can readily move into. I have yet to try the various social and retraining programs that are available to people in similar situations, so I'm afraid I can't be much help there. So the only advice I can give you as I leave this thread is fight the good fight and NEVER give up! Good luck to you, Wylie.

Dan