I just wanted to add my 2 cents in this area. Here is a brief overview of my situation.

I was born with Rubella, which left me blind at birth. They were able to restore partial vision when I was real young, but then about a year ago, they tried the lazer and lazek surgeries on me, in an attempt to restore more vision, but the surgeries ended up giving me glaucoma, which is now taking the remainder of my vision little by little.

My vision is only 20/300 with best correction. The other eye is pretty much completely blind now, and I only have a 5 degree of visual field.

because of this, I ended up having to leave my job at the factory I was working at, because I was no longer able to see well enough to perform my job duties.

Now, I am in the process of signing up for Social Security, and I tell you, that stuff is a mess to deal with!

I could have recieved unemployment for the 6 months I've been off work, but I chose not to accept it, because I knew it would affect me being approved for Social Security, and I needed SSD and SSI in order to live..

The thing that bothers me the most, my wife still works, at the same place I used to work at, but she only brings home $1,400 a month before taxes, at least thats what Social Security says. Her checks are more like $220 a week though, after taxes and everything.

The trouble is, my wife also has to financially support her youngest daughter, who is 25 years old and still living with us, because she's unemployed and can't find a job at all right now. She has an Associates Degree in paralegal, and can't find anything with it, not even fast food type jobs, so she has to take care of her needs financially.

She cannot do this most of the time though, because we know nothing about cars, so we have no choice but to lease, and her lease is like $300 /mo, then her car insurance is $150 mo on top of that, then groceries for her and her daughter, that pretty much takes care of her income..

which leaves "me" to try to cover the household expenses.. mortgage, utilities, telephone and cable bill, things of that nature.

I signed up for both SSD and SSI back in April, and was approved for both, but I have not recieved SSD yet. I started getting SSI in August, but they cut it back to $200 a month, is all, because of my wifes income. which I don't think is fair, but thats the way the system works. Now that its October, they say that I'll be starting to get an SSD check every month of $800, which I have not recieved yet, so because I was told that in October, my SSI was dropped, and I didn't get any money at all for October.. I called 'em and they said a $1,600 check will arrive in November for SSD for Oct and Nov, but I've yet to see that.

so in the meantime, I haven't had a penny to live on.
Medicare doesn't kick in for another 2 years they said, but I did sign up for Medicaid, which I started receiving back in August of 07, but it doesn't cover much..

my dentists, and the doctors my family physician sent me to for my crohns disease, don't accept Medicaid, so I am not able to get the medical care that I need for the Crohns issues I have.

About the only thing I can even use Medicaid for, is to get my medications for $3, but that does me no good when the doctors don't accept Medicaid so I can get in to have prescriptions filled to start with, so its just kinda a crappy system altogether I think.

In the meantime, I got signed up for Vocational Rehabilitation, and there in the process of sending me back to school. I should graduate in June of 08 with an Associates, then another 18 months, I'll have my bachelors in Business and Data Communications, which I am looking most forward to, so I can find a job I can do rather I have vision, or not, but it all takes time, so in the meantime, I'm trying to find some source of income, which I was hoping the Social Security sytem could provide, at least for a little while until I find employment, but I mean, this system sucks! it really does.