SSI'S CRUEL AND OPPRESSIVE RULES.

• Author: Ervin, Mike
• Position: SMART ASS CRIPPLE - Supplemental Security Income

There are about eight million people in the United States who aren't allowed to have a monthly income higher than $794. If their income goes above that amount, they can be severely punished by the federal government.

These are the people whose incomes come from SSI, which stands for Supplemental Security Income. It's a program where disabled people and people aged sixty-five or older can receive a monthly check from the federal government. But to qualify for SSI, they must be very poor, and the rules are designed to keep them that way.

The maximum monthly SSI payment is $794 for an individual. The average payment is $585. The funny thing about it is, when Congress passed the law creating the SSI program in 1972, the stated purpose was "to provide a positive assurance that the nation's aged, blind, and disabled people would no longer have to subsist on below-poverty-level incomes."

But strictly maintaining such a paltry payment ceiling assures that anyone relying on SSI has no choice but to subsist on an income far below the federal poverty level, which is currently defined as $1,073 a month for individuals.

I've known lots of disabled people throughout the years who live on SSI, and I still don't know how they make it. If they have an apartment, it's probably subsidized, so the government pays the majority of their rent. If you can find even a tiny apartment to rent for $794 these days, you won't have any money left for food and such.

Some people in this predicament may live with friends or relatives. Or maybe they scare up side hustles to bring in a little extra cash. But if you're receiving SSI, you have to be careful about employing survival strategies as bold as these, or your meager income may get further reduced or even eliminated.

If you have more than $20 a month in unearned income from a source such as a pension, you're supposed to report that to the Social Security Administration so the amount can be deducted from your SSI payment. If you earn more than $65 a month from a side job or something, fifty cents of every dollar are supposed to be deducted from your payment.

Even if you receive in-kind support from another person, such as free rent or even a bag of groceries, the rules say this is supposed to be reported so the recipient's payment can be docked accordingly.

Forget about putting away a little rainy-day nest egg. If you're collecting SSI, you can't have assets valued above $2,000. The asset limit for a married couple is...