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

#131

Post by wing-_-nuts » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:11 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #77

phphphphp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t describe it as weird because people who struggle with a disability can lose their confidence over time in things unrelated to their disability, but I certainly agree with your point: if somebody could write code 5 years ago, they can do it today. Modern technology is just old technology with some different bells and whistles, the principles are all the same, and as has always been the case, most code that…

I once knew a guy who was severely spastic, bound to a motorised wheelchair, could barely move or talk, but inside his head he was really smart and good with computers. Despite his complete disability, he was able to land a programming job with a company willing to accommodate for his disability, and he did very good work there. Then the department where he worked was disbanded and everybody was laid off. All his cow…

I'm not sure if you or your friend are in the US.

Here we have SSI (for people so disabled they were never able to work) and SSDI for people who could work and became disabled.

I have cerebral palsy and I used to be on SSI. I managed to get a CS degree and get off disability, but in doing so I 'crossed the rubicon' and 'burned the ships' so to speak, on ever going back on disability. It was scary for sure, but it ultimately turned out well. The only way I can imagine being considered 'fully disabled' again is if, god forbid, I was struck with some sort of serious cognitive impairment. I suspect the same holds for your friend.

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

#132

Post by flanbiscuit » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:12 PM UTC

2018 is not that long ago. I know things develop fast in technology but doesn't mean every single company hiring is keeping up. I would look into agency work and look for agencies that deal with boring enterprise clients. For instance, I used to work for an agency that strictly served pharmaceutical clients. I did full-stack but there were co-workers that only handled front-end, and I'm not talking about modern front-ends using React/Vue/etc, I'm talking about people writing just HTML and CSS, no build steps. These sites ranged from the simplest front-ends ("brochure websites") with simple forms to capture data, to the most basic CRUD app. This is not sexy work but it pays well and can be easy for the more experienced devs. I eventually left because I needed to learn more and do harder things, but if you just need to make money it's not a bad place to work.

Some places to start, there are few top mega companies (known as "the big four") that own most of the advertising companies in this space. Go to their sites and see which of their companies work in the "Health" space and then go to their individual sites and check out their posted jobs

1. IPG (Interpublic Group), look at the multiple "Health" options in the "Capabilities" dropdown on this page: https://www.interpublic.com/our-companies/

2. Publicis Groupe - https://www.publicisgroupe.com/en/services/services-publicis...

3. WPP plc - look into the companies mentioned on this page: https://www.wpp.com/featured/work/list?topic=Healthcare%20an...

4. Omnicom Group - check out https://www.omnicomgroup.com/newsroom/agency/bbdo/

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

#133

Post by marcus0x62 » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:14 PM UTC

Madmallard wrote: post #20

ptero wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is usually a cap on what one can earn while continuing to receive disability. I think the total of disability and other income cannot exceed 60% of pre-disability earnings or something like that.

That is correct. And if you lose it for that reason, it's very difficult and takes a long time to get back, even if you actually need it to survive.

…Which is the biggest problem with the whole setup. The risk of losing disability and not being able to get it back is too high for most people to even try to re-enter the labor market. The whole thing needs to be redesigned from the ground up.

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

#134

Post by marcus0x62 » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:14 PM UTC

moneywoes wrote: post #85

grugagag wrote: post #72

Naive question but can you do it through a friend? You get the contract on your friend/relative name, you do the work, you pay his/her taxes for that work and whatever overhead then the friend dispenses you enough money so you don’t lose disability?

Isn’t that fraud?

Yes.

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

#135

Post by Madmallard » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:17 PM UTC

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #123

thathndude wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If they acquired this disability before the age of 26 (soon to be 46?) they're also eligible to create an able account, which would have a much lower cost than a special needs trust.

Can you elaborate on this?

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

#136

Post by marcus0x62 » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:18 PM UTC

redskull wrote: post #119

disability caps out at 185 or 195? (One of these two numbers) a week...where are you getting 1200 from?

OP is probably on SSDI. Max payout per month is $3627. Average payment is $1358/month.

https://evansdisability.com/blog/social-security-disability-...

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

#137

Post by xtrohnx » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:19 PM UTC

I've found myself doing a bit of side work for small non-profits, and they tend to use older CMSs for their sites. They also tend to not have anyone on staff who fully manages the website - it usually falls under whoever is in charge of marketing or development (in the non-profit sense). One non-profit in particular reached out to have me on a monthly retainer to just pop in to their WordPress site to make sure things are updated and there are no security issues. They also ask me to do some content updates if they're overwhelmed and not sure of the best way to do it. Time wise, I'll spend maybe 15-20 minutes a month going through their checklist of ToDos, and they send a small but consistent check each month.

Maybe you could use your experience in CMS automation and reach out to a few smaller non-profits/businesses to see if you might be able to get a similar situation going? It could be a win-win; you can pull a consistent amount every month, and it's a huge relief to the marketing coordinator to not have to deal with administration they're not comfortable with.

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

#138

Post by wing-_-nuts » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:28 PM UTC

Madmallard wrote: post #135

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they acquired this disability before the age of 26 (soon to be 46?) they're also eligible to create an able account, which would have a much lower cost than a special needs trust.

Can you elaborate on this?

Yeah, an able account is basically a 529 for people with disabilities.

https://www.ablenrc.org/what-is-able/what-are-able-acounts/

As of right now it's only for people who acquired their disability before 26. I was born with cerebral palsy so that's how I qualified.

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

#139

Post by foxyv » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:32 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #130

foxyv wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It strikes me as unfair that somebody who is "lawyered up" can find loopholes to protect their income whereas for many disabled people the process of applying for disability is like going to the moon or becoming a Navy Seal. This has been an inherent flaw in our legal system since the inception of our country. We do not have a right to equal representation. The right to have representation at all is barely even a t…

We do not have a right to equal representation. I'm not sure that's the case here. It's a matter of knowledge transfer. Lawyers know things. People with money can afford to get knowledge from lawyers. People without money cannot afford to get knowledge from lawyers. It's not a problem with the "system" that mathematicians know more about math than the general public, and that people who have the money can hire a math…

A huge problem with the system is that the laws are not understandable without significant study. Law school is ridiculously expensive. The average cost of a law degree right now is about $200,000. This makes legal representation insanely expensive.

A step towards equal representation would start by heavily subsidizing law school making them accessible to everyone. Also, we would need to fund the creation of more law schools. In addition we should fund public defenders an order of magnitude more than we currently do.

https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-law-school#:~:text....

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

#140

Post by Madmallard » Mon, Jan 30, 2023, 4:36 PM UTC

redskull wrote: post #119

disability caps out at 185 or 195? (One of these two numbers) a week...where are you getting 1200 from?

I'm referring to SSDI and private disability companies in the United States. Particularly, phone calls with representatives from these companies. It may very well be different now I haven't exactly asked about it in a couple of years now. Before it was 20% of your pre-disability income per month. Since I was a software engineer, that came up to around $1200. If I google it looks like $1470 for SSDI in 2023 is your maximum earnable income in 2023. But I haven't really tried to even meet these numbers for fear of losing disability coverage by some shady for-profit disability company means.