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How Being Disabled and Poor is a Full-Time Job
In the US, you have to work hard for the privilege of being low-income and, in the process, feel grateful for things like rotten vegetables
“Being financially poor often means you are time-poor. You spend so much time on the phone, in lines, and filling out paperwork just to get a little help to survive to the next week. And this often means you are energy-poor because all of the time on the phone, in lines, and filling out the paperwork takes mental and emotional energy. We need to stop looking at poor as only a money thing and have a more holistic perspective.”
— charliemorganwrites via Threads
It’s exhausting being poor and disabled in America. As an autistic and chronically ill person in the US, there is never enough support and for what little support one gets financially, they make you work hard to get it.
Applying for disability is not the breezy experience that misinformed, abled people think it is. When I became disabled in my 20s, it took me three years to be awarded SSDI from the government after applying for disability benefits.
By 2001, I was on my last appeal when I was finally officially diagnosed with POTS. After that, I was quickly awarded thousands of…