General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: So, just how much money are those lazy seniors getting from their Social Security? [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)If you have a benefit below the poverty level, you should be eligible for some things like supplemental Medicaid for Medicare or housing subsidies or food stamps.
But some people have said they want to do away with those benefits for seniors. That would really hurt the seniors who are getting very low Social Security benefits and relying on those other benefits to bring them up to at least the poverty level.
I posted this because if you listen to the Pete Peterson gang and his friends, you think that seniors are doing really well, cashing in on Social Security. No. That is a lie.
And many, like you, receive even less than these numbers suggest.
Is hope that you understand that my purpose is to advocate for all of us and to stop the lies about what Social Security pays out to individuals. If you look at the total sums paid out, they are very large as a proportion of overall government expenditures that we are allowed to see. (I don't know whether we see all the money spent on military, intelligence activities.) But the truth is, that we just have a lot of seniors and we paid extra to cover our benefits when we retired and the government owes us that money.
I hope you are getting a benefit commensurate with your contributions to Social Security. That's the system. It is very hard on those who are alone and earned low wages or maybe did not work part of their lives. It is also, as I pointed out, very, very hard for widows and widowers who inherit the costs of a two-person household when their spouse dies, but don't inherit the income.