Epic, much love and hugs to you and your mother. I'm glad to hear that you're getting good advice and finding the support you need. Being a caretaker of that magnitude is damn hard work.

I could use a little advice from those who know about disability. My son has been on disability since he was 18 (he's now 34). He was recently taken off, because they said he didn't work enough hours over the past 5 years to continue to qualify. If he's permanently disabled, how does that work? It's not making a lot of sense to me. And can it vary from state to state?

As for the monies, get yourself named your mother's power of attorney so you can draw money from her bank accounts to pay for all of it.

Actually, I already have Mom's power of attorney, and have access to her accounts. The problem is that she doesn't have ANY money. Her current savings would pay for about 3 days of her care. My current savings would cover maybe 1 week. She's living on just Social Security now (her 401K ran out 2 months ago, because the gods of good timing have turned their faces from me), so it's up to me to find the money, not just to move it around.

Sail, I'm afraid I won't have much useful info for you. I recall receiving SDI when my stepfather passed, when I was a kid. That is federal and through the Social Security Administration. Things got messed up when **work study** earnings fouled up my eligibility to receive disability. The logic being, if I could work the 5-10 hours a week on work study, I could hold a full time job, while going to school. I dunno. It's messed up.

What agency is now denying your son? If it's SSA, then it's feds, and should be universal across USA. If it's a state agency, then it would be a local thing. Once you know which agency, I would suggest hiring a lawyer who specializes in fighting that agency.

As far as I know, he was on SSDI and it's the SSA that's cut him off. I think I should just try to get in touch with an advocacy group of some kind in Arizona. I'm too far away to research this stuff myself and Jesse wouldn't even know where to start with it. He's accepted the ruling, but he's going to be homeless again, soon, with the lack of opportunities for him. He's short rent again by $100 and his rent is only $450 a month in a fleabag studio. He's been going to food pantries to try and keep himself going, but he can only collect so many times from any one pantry. There's a lot of things he could probably apply for, but he is functionally illiterate; he has to have someone help him fill the forms out and that's hard for him to arrange. He said he was going to apply for food stamps this week, but I'm willing to bet he never gets around to it because he can't fill out the form. It's so frustrating being so far away and not being able to help more.

because they said he didn't work enough hours over the past 5 years to continue to qualify

When Hubby was declared permanently disabled, there was no mention about him working any hours. Normally I hear of people getting thrown off because they're working *any* hours. So it's either some local variant or a slightly different program.

I think what they are talking about is that if you were out of the work force for more than a certain number of years before applying for disability you are not eligible for standard disability. (That does not apply to people who were permanently disabled before being old enough to enter the workforce.) There is a more stingy form of disability for people who have not been in the workforce but who have no other source of income.

It took Hubby five years and forests of paper to get the government to agree that he wasn't able to work anymore.

Epic, is ther a social worker at the hospital? Is there the possibility of Medicaid for the gap?

See, that's what I don't get. He has been on disability continuously since he was 18 years old. Before that, he was a ward of the court of the state of Arizona, so he has effectively been "in the system" since he was 8 years old. He's had the same diagnoses since then, nothing has changed. He's got enough alphabet soup in his medical file to launch 20 new federal agencies. But, somehow, when he petitioned for divorce last year, he was told that he would have to be re-evaluated to stay on disability, which his disability is not one that's ever, ever going to change or go away. I'm just flailing at the injustice.

There are case workers, but while they seem nice enough, no one seems to be jumping up to help. I'm looking at services with the county, but the problem there is everything is supposed to take 30-45 days to process, but I need a plan in less than a week. I also have to get Medi-Cal in place before the county in-home health service people can help me, but the application they were supposed to have mailed still hasn't come, and the person at the rehab who could help me expedite that process a little is pregnant and keeps leaving early, not coming in, and/or not calling me back.

I just realized that my mother's Discover Card actually has the available balance, and, weirdly, a better interest rate than mine. So if I can't find money, or help, or a loan in time, I think I'm going to just give them her CC number, and work out how to cover paying it back when I'm not under such a time crunch (she's coming home Friday and I'm hoping to have care in place on Monday morning).

I got an offer in the mail the other day for a mortgage refi from the CU. I was thinking of looking at a home equity line anyway, so I'm also probably going to try to talk to someone about this. Take out a bit over to clear her last few outstanding balances, then her SS check would just cover her regular monthly bills and maybe free up some spending money for her. And I could clear my CC balances to clear some more ready cash flow to help her out. I'm just afraid of fees, and how long it might take.

And I suppose that's what this comes down to. I can figure it out, but all of the figuring it out RIGHT THIS SECOND is why I'm stressed to the gills right now. But as I keep reminding her, the only way out is through, and forward is the only direction we're offered. So we're going forward.