The food was nearly gone and the bills were going unpaid, but they still had their pills, and that was what they thought of as the sky brightened and they awoke, one by one. First came Kathy Strait, 55, who withdrew six pills from a miniature backpack and swallowed them. Then emerged her daughter, Franny Tidwell, 32, who rummaged through 29 bottles of medication atop the refrigerator and brought down her own: oxcarbazepine for bipolar disorder, fluoxetine for depression, an opiate for pain. She next reached for two green bottles of Tenex, a medication for hyperactivity, filled two glasses with water and said, “Come here, boys.”
The boys were identical twins William and Dale, 10. They were the fourth generation in this family to receive federal disability checks, and the first to be declared no longer disabled and have them taken away. In days that had grown increasingly tense, as debts mounted and desperation grew to prove that the twins should be on disability, this was always the worst time, before the medication kicked in, when the mobile home was filled with the sounds of children fighting, dogs barking, adults yelling, television volume turned up.
—The Washington Post, Generations, Disabled
The article is about one of the hundreds of thousand families with more than one member receiving disability payments. In this case the twins had been receiving disability payments because they had been born prematurely, but now they had been taken off. The family tried to get them declared autistic, but had no luck.
So now the grandmother, adult daughter and four children have to live on only $2005 a month, plus food stamps and other help, instead of the previous $3133. The interesting part to me is they spend a total of $433 a month for cable TV ($98), cell phones ($300), and internet ($35). It’s a different world from the one I grew up in.
It’s not uncommon here to find those not managing or similar circumstances to your story – $ spent on what are actually luxuries.
It often turns out that the family has no idea of how to cook, what to purchase that is nutritious at the market, do not know how to budget and keep adding to their families…
they say the children are going without…but actually the parents aren’t even providing as it turns out – the $ are going elsewhere… often in debts, court fines, pokies, the pub, the pie shop…
some are eating huge pots of quite the wrong food – and so on…
then there is the other side of the coin, the same $ but the family is able to grow vege, make better choices and make sure that children come first…
I too (now) have read the entire saga – they could make a documentary film of it – it’s so bizarre!
I must have been a generational sort of option for the Mother to come to those kind of ideals…
I can see why they are being given so many different diagnoses as none of the authorities want to even come into personal contact with the Mother (noted the phone interview)
And they will be only the tip of the iceberg – it’s probably played out in many cities around the world!
One of my remotely acknowledged friends has a shelf full of pills for all kinds of “stuff”, not much of the prescribed stuff…and much of it could be found at the grocery store, as in real food. He finally had move chemists as he owed 1000s – I knew the chemist at the time, and he said “he’s just a waste of space…good riddance”
Another one of my friends gets upset that I won’t get extra supplements like vitamins or similar – especially now it’s winter. I don’t really see that as a necessary expense, would rather just eat well 🙂 and as of now, I have minor cold – fluids, warmth and rest…
It’s sad because that family is clearly stuck in its misery — it’s hard to believe they could be convinced to change their ways. The grandmother says why can’t people see she needs help. She does, but it wouldn’t be in the form of more money, and she probably wouldn’t like any restrictions placed on the family.
There is no dole system here and if your family does not have some one or more earning, you starve. Likewise, for medical expenses, even the government hospitals insist on patients paying for their medicines and so, rarely does one want to go into a hospital. I think that this is a better system than the social welfare societies of the West.
It would be nice to have a happy medium.
I followed the link and read the entire article. it’s beyond sad. it’s unbelievable.
and with no birth control there will be more and more of these generational families living on the dole and taking their pills.
polar disorder and all the other supposed disorders in our changed world seem to only give them an excuse to live in such slovenly conditions.
‘don’t blame me blame my disorder.’
their house is literally full of so much stuff they’ve bought and treated like trash. they don’t have the first clue in simply how to live.
people have faced poverty and pain all through the ages.
and we always say ‘education is the key.’ but before even that… they need to learn to have pride in themselves and in basic living.
I wonder if boot camps called ‘life corps’ could be formed!
they could be taught the basics of living in a civilized manner.
neatness. personal responsibility. healthy eating. hygiene. exercise. beds would be made. they would learn the importance of cleanliness. they could learn how to manage their money. and in the course of it all they would learn pride in themselves and simple daily living. then they might be ready to be educated in the general sense!
it would be a start. a more important one than throwing them into a ‘school’ where they get a D or a C … and then go back to a pit called a home where they are learning next to nothing.
That’s why the problem can become intergenerational under the present situation. 🙁
I read the article about an hour ago. Just from the headline and description of the article, I had a feeling that it would be about disability payments being used as a form of “welfare.”
This is certainly different from how I grew up. After living with my middle class grandparents for five years, I went to live with my mom, stepdad, and younger sister. We were poor, dirt poor. My step-dad worked, moving from one trucking to job to another or other kinds of jobs, but seldom out of work for very long. After he left my mom, she went to work as a waitress. I started working part time when I was 16. We never asked for welfare, as far as I know, and the food stamp program was barely “a thing” back then. The only government freebee we took advantage of was going to a clinic to get my inoculations up to date so that I could register for school.
A couple of weeks ago, I waited patiently in line at our local Walmart Neighborhood Market while the cashier helped a young woman who was using SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for the first time. She was trying to buy quite a few things that didn’t qualify and the cashier called for someone to help her. I noticed her husband (or significant other) looking a little impatient but didn’t think anything of it. The store workers took all of her purchases off the register and were going to assist her in finding goods that could be bought under SNAP. The exasperating moment for me was when I went outside and saw the husband loading a cart full of non-SNAP items into the trunk of a new (or very late model) large sedan.
Up to that point I had made no judgements one way or another on the couple — I didn’t them or their situation — but, still, given the optics of the young man loading groceries into the back of a very nice car while his wife is being shown how to use SNAP………………
good grief – that’s not good way to live a life – wouldn’t surprise me if the powers to be, have no idea that woman is a wife of someone else…using the system!
I don’t even think the system will discover the multiplicity…
Then a person in genuine need is ruled against – based who knows what…
I just looked up SNAP to see how it is different from food stamps.
The problem is they can also be used for soft drinks, snack foods and candy. Some people want to restrict them to nutritional food, but others object that would be demeaning to the recipients. I think the restrictions make sense given the goal of the program. Obviously some food manufacturers disagree.
they have a “green card” here – I actually have one, but it wasn’t food in my case (dental expenses) – I had never had one before, but it’s like a debit card, the amt $ is loaded and the business – and you have to use it pronto, otherwise return to get another load-up
the green is actually turquoise 🙂
I think it has restrictions if it’s for food – like no cigarette or soft drinks… I might be short of things, sometimes, but not to a degree that I was looking at the last crust 🙂
I always have very basics…but nowadays I’m better organised as it’s only me in the house!
My former sister-in-law remarried and had four more children while keeping my two nieces on welfare. She said her husband couldn’t adopt the two or they would lose those benefits. Yet they enrolled the girls in school using his last name to “prevent confusion.” We finally agreed to disagree and stopped discussing this issue. Some people’s minds just work differently.
It’s no worse than Trump bragging about all the taxes he has legally not paid. 🙁
There has to be something badly wrong with a family that needs 29 bottles of medication. How can they be that sick?
There are many many people in Northern Ireland on disability benefit. Most are entirely genuine, physically unfit or suffering from the traumatic experience of the Troubles. Some claims are no doubt verging on the fraudulent, but any welfare system is subject to an element of abuse. The really significant abuse is all those tax-dodging multi-national corporations.
Anytime there is a system people will figure out a way to game it. The sad thing in these cases is the kids raised in that environment think that’s the only way they can live. Then they have kids and it goes on and on.
Jean, that is one of the reasons I gave up my voluntary “help the community job” around a decade ago…I realised that the circle of “needs” just kept returning.
It was a organisation who depended on funds (only a few paid people in the agency) and that meant “boxes had to be ticked” – that was fine BUT there was this neverending cycle of “family needs” – nowhere to live, refuge for battered people, continuous food parcels, money for overdue utilities etc…
every year, other bodies would say “it’s getting better or similar” and in my heart/mind I knew quite differently!!
now there is a housing crisis and all the above will still be on the cards…I just couldn’t take the client who would arrive Friday arvo and I would say “how can I help?” – “we have no where to live” (we being a woman and 3 kids) and I would say with a smile “come in and I will see what we can do…”
but in my head I would be saying “this isn’t going to end up in done, at all”…I always knew I would phone this place, and that place – no vacancies or they might say age of children and that would be against her…
in the end, I would have to give up – extract $10 from the petty cash and hope it fed them that evening…(then spend 30mins writing up the reason for the $10 out)…
Just like a knitting pattern, repeat that row, until you yarn runs out!
I know a similar story that is a bit too close for comfort, except there really isn’t any disability in the case that I know about. Just a strong hostility towards work from those who are quite talented, but eventually that becomes a disability of sorts. Thus, the three dogs in the picture stand out as another expense.
A lot of people figure, if they can get by with it, why not? Unfortunately that’s why some Trump supporters voted for him. They want jobs, not handouts. Lots of luck with that.
you’ve probably noticed I changed my gravatar pic…
that is because on another blog, I was asked about not having one, so I checked what I had in there, and low and behold my Aladdin was there! And it proved to be right gravatar to use at that particular blog space…because it’s when you want to be someone else – just for a night out!
I remember being annoyed that I had to put the hat/feather in the trunk/boot of the taxi as we wouldn’t fit in said back seat of taxi… I loved the effect all oover. The theme of the night was “purple” and this was overall very purple.
I didn’t want to give the hire costume back 🙂
I do love that gravatar. I wish I could see a bigger version of it. 🙂