Leave the thread for a few and spend half an hour catching up again...
On SSI/SSDI... for SSI, you get backpay *from the day you became disabled* (assuming you qualify financially for such aid), not just the day you applied - for SSDI it goes by application date. To clarify that a little - when my SSI finally went through, they backdated my pay to age 18 (the age at which I had proof I was supporting myself and thus qualified financially for said aid), not the date of my first application (which was age 21 or so). Had my parents' incomes been just slightly lower, I would have got backdated pay all the way to the day of my birth. The downside is SSI is much less money per month (as it should be - people who qualify for SSDI have worked longer and thus paid more into the system). The long and short of it is, lump sum wise, SSI is the better one to get done first... but SSDI is the one you can actually *live* on month to month. There is no apartment, shared living arrangement, or cardboard box in the road which I could afford to live in with just my SSI check (backpay's long gone, went to keep a roof over our heads while mom was out of work years ago). Which is why I also do what I can from home, and why I'm still going back to school so I can get a decent paying job and get off "the system" - SSI by itself is enough to keep you from starving to death, but it's not enough to pay the bills long term. That's why most people who *only* qualify for SSI, and don't have any kind of retirement/pension/significant other/friend/family etc to supplement that, live in assisted living/group homes... they take your check, and in exchange, they feed you and give you a room (and probably a roommate or two).
It is nineteen degrees outside. My little field trip is hereby postponed.
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