Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#101

Post by langitbiru » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

jonnycomputer wrote: post #84

jmduke wrote: post #30

Have you considered technical writing? I've talked to a number of folks who are in a similar position, and writing (as opposed to generalist development) has a number of advantages: - It rewards experience though, except for niche-specific writing, does not require understanding of specific frameworks or programming languages - It is often 'important-but-not-urgent' work, so intermittent availability is less of a dea…

Interesting. Do you have a feel for the market for this as a contract-job or side-gig?

There are contract jobs: https://whopaystechnicalwriters.com

But there are also permanent type jobs. Some companies are looking for technical writers. Find them at "Who is Hiring" threads.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#102

Post by svieira » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:50 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #94

toyg wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard thresholds on benefits just suck. They should always, always be progressively tapered, in a way that incentivises work. Otherwise you're just creating a permanent class of people without any incentive to contribute to the society that keeps them alive. I know someone with similar problems in the UK: they are part-time, but working more hours would mean paying more in childcare and lose benefits, ending up with l…

Retired rich people. Whenever a system it setup to help poor people, a harsh system of cutoffs is needed to prevent retired people from qualifying for the benefit by moving money around on paper. The problem is that we have far too many systems to allow relatively well-off people to "zero" their on-paper income, even their personal assets, during retirement. Entire industries exist to facilitate such trickery (see ev…

Starving the poor to prevent feeding the rich seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#103

Post by tarotuser » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:50 PM UTC

From all the comments thus far posted here, I think you'd be best off finding work "under the table", cash only. Yes, this would be defrauding the SSDI system, in the technical sense. But given the significant rise in damned near everything, SSDI is grossly unacceptable in its benefits and requirements.

(I mean, this isn't a case of a Scrooge McDuck collecting piles of money into the money bin. You've got both feet square in the poverty class, with SSDI serving as the very poverty trap.)

SSDI will remove you from their roles if you make "too much".

You'll be forced to a different disability agency that will do everything in its power to not cover you.

If a workplace does significantly accommodate, that will forever be used to prove that you're not disabled; just lazy.

This country's (USA) politicians do not care about you.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#104

Post by ThinkBeat » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:51 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #62

> I've been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated. I always find this such a weird claim. Sure, lots has happened in the past 5 years, but there's still tons of software out there that's older than 5 years, most major programming languages are decades old, and anything new can be learned. If you want to be able to make money quickly, it's far more interesting to look at w…

[ActivistNote] As the inflation continues to raise prices, is it vital to put political pressure on ensuring that the state increases SS payments accordingly. [/ActivistNote]

You have the right to your opinion but it pretty close to the mythical "Let them eat cake"

In his situation he has nearly no control over how much he will get paid. You take what the government gets and that is it.

A nice thing when you are working is that you can sort of hope for a bonus, a raise, promotion etc. You have some control, yet that influence good in some jobs and next to none in other jobs.

On SS you cant really hope for a bonus. and asking for a raise aint happening either.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#105

Post by terhechte » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

I might have something for you. I'm helping out a small company that has web dashboards which sometimes need to be updated. The stack is Python/Flask running on AWS Beanstalk. Frontend is vanilla HTML with JS/CSS. There's currently quite some work to improve the performance of queries by writing things as JSON to S3. "Queries" means Python Pandas. All in all it is a simple stack. The complexity is in the detailed pandas code, but there's a data scientist who works on that. It is a US company. Obviously I'm not the founder so I can't guarantee anything, but if you're interested: My profile contains my contact information.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#106

Post by bonsaibilly » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

dev_tty01 wrote: post #90

ceejayoz wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't average. https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/416/416-0420.htm > We generally use the amount of your countable income in the second month prior to the current month to determine how much your benefit amount will be for the current month. Earning $5k in a particular month would mean zero benefit in a subsequent month, and keeping that $5k sitting in their account to tide themselves over would put them over the…

If the 5k is better than the "normal" month with benefit, it is still better to earn the 5k that month, assuming the benefit is immediately restored on the subsequent months with low income.

> It takes up to a month to approve your request for reinstatement. However, this does not mean that your benefits have been completely restored. While you are receiving temporary benefits, the Social Security office is determining your eligibility to completely reinstate your benefits after the six months of temporary benefits. The Social Security office analyzes your medical condition and updates your medical information. If they decide that you are eligible to continue receiving SSI benefits, your temporary benefits become regular SSI benefits. If you are not eligible to receive benefits, your temporary benefits end.

> The Social Security office may approve your request for reinstatement. If your request is approved, your temporary benefits start the month following the month in which you made your request. Temporary benefits can last up to six months.

So: it’s not instant. It’s not immediate. And it risks losing the benefits altogether if they mistake a one-time contract for something he could sustain indefinitely.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#107

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:54 PM UTC

tarotuser wrote: post #103

From all the comments thus far posted here, I think you'd be best off finding work "under the table", cash only. Yes, this would be defrauding the SSDI system, in the technical sense. But given the significant rise in damned near everything, SSDI is grossly unacceptable in its benefits and requirements. (I mean, this isn't a case of a Scrooge McDuck collecting piles of money into the money bin. You've got both feet s…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#108

Post by dev_tty01 » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:55 PM UTC

Madmallard wrote: post #28

ohyes wrote: post #21

How many hours can you potentially work?

I don't really know. I can say with confidence that I cannot be consistent for months at a time. I've been in and out of the hospital every 6 months since 2018.

That is so stressful. A close relative has a similar situation. It is cyclical and is a condition that for some people does improve long term, so when she is on the upswing there is always the thought/hope that it might continue to improve. Then after a few months it goes the other way. Absolutely crushing. At this point, she has something akin to PTSD from battling through these cycles over the years. Hope you can find a sustainable groove.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#109

Post by dingusdew » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:55 PM UTC

thathndude wrote: post #56

nfriedly wrote: post #27

For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it. Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who…

Lawyer here, but not legal advice: Look into a Special Needs Trust. You may be able to sock the money into the Trust without it becoming income to you, and thus jeopardizing your benefits. It’s usually used to keep assets low enough for benefits, but maybe there’s an income reducing benefit as well. Your state likely has multiple providers —- fees, if any, are typically quite reasonable

One way to legally get the end-run around SSDI is to work on open source projects and accept donations.

SSDI allows income from sources other than work, unlike SSI, which bars pretty much all income. SSDI allows you to get things like Financial Aid for school without impacting your SSDI. You can even trade stocks and gain money from stock sales and not have it impact your SSDI. Your spouse can have income and it won't impact SSDI. Most forms of income that are not strictly "work" are allowed by SSDI. SSI is the more strict of the two programs (and is more generally aimed at people who have been lifetime disabled and never worked or paid into social security).

Open source development + accepting donations seems like a sweet spot for the disabled on SSDI. You're not accepting pay for the "work" you do, thus the donation income is legally acceptable.

OP doesn't specify whether they are on SSI or SSDI, but if they had worked for years before they were disabled, its likely they were able to get SSDI.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#110

Post by dsego » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #100

dsego wrote: post #57

You could try Toptal. It's a bit different from other freelancing sites.

I run far, far away from companies that openly advertise that they hire the top X percent of talent. There should be talent agencies dedicated for the "rest" that still generate good solid value, but also don't charge top dollar.

They technically hire the top percent that pass their screening process. Those are the candidates that put in the effort to solve coding challenges and work on test projects. And once you're in, you don't have to go through any assessments again, there is no bidding on projects or race to the bottom, you set your rate and you can find hourly, part-time or full time work that suits your skill set.