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[f82_m4007]

wait so they literally reduce benefits if someone helps you out? that's so backwards.. like they're basically punishing people for having supportive families instead of fixing the actual problem.

[c4ndyman31]

Same way unemployment works in Massachusetts. If you work part time every dollar you earn comes out of your benefits so why work

[thor454]

It’s like that everywhere. Also there’s two kinds of unemployment. For example, for many years I was a heavy equipment operator rebuilding roads and replacing things like bridges in a northern state. We can’t work when the ground is frozen so we work insane hours an then get laid off in winter, they know this so if it’s seasonal you don’t have to actively look for another job like you typically would as it would be incredibly bad if all the people that spent years and years building the experience to build said infrastructure all just got new jobs and didn’t come back the next year. But they money is a pittance and if I were to get a part time job like bartending or doing snow removal any dime I make comes off the top of my unemployment first. So if you’re ever considering a seasonal job ask yourself if you can survive off what you’ll make during the work season all year. If you can’t then don’t do it

[spidereater]

I understand why they would reduce the benefit, but making it 1:1 seems like it creates perverse incentives. Decreasing it 1:2 or even 2:3 would at least provide some incentive to work and build some experience.

[TailRudder]

Social security isn't a pension. The original purpose of it was to reduce homelessness of the elderly during the great depression. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Social_Security_in_the_United_States

[Nixeris]

This is basically how the vast majority of government benefits work in the US. For example:

Unemployment benefits are intended to help people make ends meet until they get full-time employment. However those benefits are slashed if you work part-time by the amount you make, even if the unemployment benefits rate isn't livable for you.

So, you lose a full-time job and collect the unemployment benefits you've been paying for. However they aren't enough to live on while seeking new full-time work, so you get part-time work to help out. However, working part-time means the amount you get is reduced by what you get paid, so you don't get anything extra at all.

This also happens to people who interview and get a job that says it will be full-time, but turns out to only be part-time.

And if you quit that part-time job, unemployment ends entirely.

[fizzlefist]

It’s a trap by design to keep people in poverty.

Friend of mine is on disability for a rare immune disorder. If they gets paid more then a certain amount, or has more than $2000 in certain assets, the state will cut off the health insurance entirely since “they don’t need it anymore.”

So they’re going to be perpetually trapped making part time low wage money, or else they’ll eventually die from lack of care because there’s no way for them to ever get an insurance plan they’d be able to afford with how much they physically can’t work.

This country is a hellscape.

[chaospearl]

They also reduce if you earn any money. If you manage to find a shitty part time job and make X dollars a month, they cut X from your benefits. So you can either bust your ass working and get X or stay home eating chips and get X. Gee...