maybe a touchy question, but what do you do on disability?

If you are on disablity, what can you posssibly do?  I thought of volunteeer work or finding or making a support group for IBD. I am not one to sit at home and am wondering if there is anyone out there to volunteer info on what productive time you can do with this disease.  I can no longer do my job and just wonder what to do next.  At home jobs are hard to come by and i want to do something productive.

Sorry if this is too sensitive of an issue but I'm lost at this point.

In Canada where I live, if you get disability from the federal government you are allowed to go to school, volunteer and even work, you can make aprox 4600.00/yr without having to claim/notify them, if you make more than that then you must claim/notify them and if you are able to work enough hours equivilant to at least a part time job you must notify them...they may take you completely off benefits or depending on the circumstances cut your full disability pay down...I believe each case may be different depending on the disability of the person and such.


In the province I live in (Alberta) the provincial disability benefits suck hard, the most they give anyone is 810.00/month and if you win as much as a lousy dollar on a scratch ticket or have someone move into your house and pay you rent you have to let them know so they can adjust your benefit to less then the maximum of 810.00, basically, they want to know what colour your underware are... They'll even base your cheque amount depending on what your spouse or even your dependants make in your household...it's basically based on household income, so if you live alone, good luck living on 810.00 a month, you can't even find a place to rent for that little....let alone pay elec, heat, water, food...it's quite pathetic, especially for such a wealthy province.



:)

When I was off from work for health reasons, if I could leave the house I would go to the library. I wrote, studied a new language, read books I'd been meaning to read for a while. It was like being a student again and I really enjoyed it. Of course, that's pretty solitary and if you are looking to be with people then volunteering or taking a class or joining a book group are ways to do things with other people and be "productive."

If you are on disability in the US, I believe that you will have to report any earnings. Would you jeopardize your disability payments by working or volunteering? I would think that if what you do appears similar to the job you cannot do, it could be misinterpreted. I'd just look into the parameters of your disability payments if you are in the US to make sure that you don't accidentally open up some problems.

I agree that being productive while not working is challenge. I had even thought about offering to help friends with things. For example, if you know how to sell stuff on ebay, you could help people do that.

I just thought of a volunteer thing you can do from home easily -- in the U.S. there are charities that arrange for people to call elderly people at home each day to make sure they are ok and to provide some contact. I can't remember where I saw that listed, but you might be able to find something like that. Easy to do from home and a great thing to do.

Let us know what you find. I'm sure it will be helpful and inspirational to others. :)

I just applied for dis retirement from work..........waiting to hear , my rep says I should get it and apply for ssdi (which takes a while I know). Don't want to count my eggs before they are hatched, but it looks good. I have a good doctor, he says I cannot work at my job. They would be 2 different incomes. And I'm not sure to go with an attny for ssdi. I saw one last year for advise. she wouldn't charge me unless I got it and would take 5% of whatever my settlement was. But then I know people that apply for ssdi them selves.

I really cannot hold a full time job with this disease and all the flare ups. I thought of alot of the suggestions you all gave me......like volunteering at the hospital gift shop or visiting the elderly, etc. I just cannot stay at home all the time. I"m taking one step at a time and if I end up not working for money, I want to volunteer for a good cause. You've all given me ideas.

you know, I've thought about going on disability in the past but never pursued it. Reading this thread made me think it's a wonder anyone can get on federal/state funded disability with UC, because you'd think the government would say "Hey, just get your colon out, problem solved." I always figured it'd be too much of a hassle to go thru the paperwork, for little monetary reward.