Caregivers and Stress

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by TruTexan

My mom draws a small check from the VA as a widow because of my stepdad's passing. She also draws SSI and social security. This month mom got a letter from social security saying she would be drawing double her VA benefits due to the VA matching data it received. Guess what happened? It was a MISTAKE that caused her to lose her SSI benefit which in turn stopped her medicaid, which in turn stopped her Medicare premium payments, which in turn stopped her Rx assistance program, which in turn stopped her Food stamps. All because the VA is now using a computer matching program that sends the information the widower receives about her VA amount to the Soc. Security Administration which caused a DOUBLE amount to be shown as being received next month, which stopped all the benefits she was getting by the end of this month, NOV. 30 2013. Between my sister and I, we were able to get social security to get the correction made, but still have to now RE-APPLY for mom's food stamps SNAP benefits. Her check from SSI will be late next month if not the month after, and I'm still not sure if her Medicare savings program for paying her medicare premiums and extra help with her Rx 's will still be in effect for next month due to this mistake. Soc. security says it should be alright, but to reapply for snap food benefits which will take 30 days to get it processed, so mom's food stamps probably won't be here in time on the 1st of DEC. like she needs it to be. This new matching system between the VA and social security has caused problems for many widowers that I saw in the Human Resources Dept. complaining about all their benefits being stopped.
IF you have a parent you help , watch for this issue, and get on it right away or it's going to be a mess if you don't. JUST FYI. If you need any help with this , let me know, I've dealing with it now.
Justy.

Good Gods.... now that must be extremely stressful.
My mother only gets SSI and medicare. She pays for supplement insurance everymonth. It works for her. She has had some serious medical issues and it saved her from going into debt. Its a good insurance and she loves the peace of mind it gives her.

Then my sister decided mom needs to stop *wasting* $200.00 a month for supplement insurance. i disagreed. i have enough to deal with where my mom is concerned and chose NOT to deal with this. i told my sister she can take this issue up with my mom. She did, my mom said she didn't want to leave her insurance because its a good one and she trusts it.

That should have been the end of that.

She mentioned it to me and i told her that i was not interested.

THEN my sister writes to me a long snarkly email about the issues with my mother and once again turned it around that she is a victim of some sort.

Yah that ended well!