ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR PEOPLE WITH 

DISABILITIES DURING COVID-19 AND BEYOND 

JUNE 16, 2020 

 

>> KAITLIN SHETLER: Good afternoon everyone, thank you so much 
for joining our webinar today. 

I am Kaitlin Shetler with the Center on Victimization and Safety 

at the Vera Institute of Justice. 

I would like to welcome everyone to today's webinar. 

We are so pleased to bring you this as part of our 2020 

end abuse of people with disabilities webinar series. 

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abuse of people with disabilities 

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So our presenters today are Renee Lopez and Ashley Brompton. 

Renee is a 58-year-old woman with a physical disability 

who was born and raised in Austin, Texas. 

She has lived there her entire life. 

She graduated from the University of Texas in 1984 

and in 1986 with a BA and a Masters of education respectively. 

She worked for the state of Texas for 30 years 

and is now retired. She has a long history 

of advocating for the rights of people with disabilities. 

Since 1982 when a student at the University of Texas. 

As a student with a lifelong physical disability 

she joined other students with disabilities for campus 
accessibility. 

She continues to advocate to this day. 

She has been on the advisory board for safe disability services 

since 2010. She has attended conferences 

on behalf of safe as a workshop presenter teaching and informing 
conference attendees 

on issues on violence and abuse against persons with 
disabilities, 

and she is also a member of a core group of a coalition 

put together by the Vera Institute of Justice 

on ending violence against people with disabilities. 

Ashley Brompton joined the center on victimization and safety 

as a program associate in November 2016. 

At Vera, actually provides technical assistance 

to victim service providers and disability service providers 

that are striving to improve services to survivors of domestic 

and/or sexual violence who have disabilities 

and Deaf survivors. 

She also coordinates the center's national outreach 

including the end abuse of people with disabilities webinar 
series 

and a monthly newsletter. Additionally she provides expertise 
and support 

for our no go coalition to end violence against people with 
disabilities 

and a project focused on creating resources for first 
responders, 

victim service providers, attorneys, forensic interviews, 

and others on addressing the needs of victims with disabilities. 

Prior to joining the Vera Institute of Justice 


Ashley was a criminal justice fellow at the ARC national center 
of disability 

where she advocated on behalf of individuals with intellectual 

and/or developmental disabilities who were involved with the 
criminal justice system 

as victims of crime or suspects or offenders. 

Ashley has a jurist doctorate from Wake Forest university school 
of law 

and a bachelor degree in political science from the Florida Gulf 
Coast university. 

Thank you Renee and Ashley, and I will turn it over to you, 
Ashley. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Thank you so much, Kaitlin. 

And thank you all for joining us today. 

Renee and I are both really excited 

to be talking about this, 

to be really exploring some of these issues. 

They come up a lot in conversation 

when we are talking about people with disabilities, 

we talk about SSI which is supplemental security insurance, 

only talk about Medicaid or we talk about other issues, 

but we don't really talk about it through the lens of what this 
means 

economically for people, and how this creates barriers for 
folks. 

And so it is nice to be able to have an opportunity 

to have that conversation. 

And we know that people with disabilities, 

especially Black, indigenous, People of Color with disabilities 

are disproportionately impacted by poverty 

because of intentional policy decisions, 

and so our goals and objectives for today 

are to explore some of the barriers, the economic barriers 

that survivors with disabilities face, and to understand 

the impact of those barriers. What does it actually mean 

when they face these barriers, what other consequences. 

And then think about discussing and evaluating solutions 

to overcoming these barriers to better establish economic 
equity, 

and we will talk about a variety of issues today that come up 

throughout our work around advocacy for people with disabilities 
and survivors with disabilities, 

and ways in which we can better serve them. 

We are going to start with the premise that survivors with 
disabilities 

are more likely to experience poverty and economic insecurity. 


And we wanted to start with some statistics that we thought 

really kind of drive this point home. 

The national Council on disability 

did a report a while back 

on economics for people with disabilities, specifically. 

And that people with disabilities make up 

approximately 12 percent of the US working age population. 

I think this statistic is a little bit older now 

so I would say it is probably higher 

than 12 percent, I think this report was from a few years ago. 

But 12 percent of the US working age population, 

however they account for more than half of those who are living 
in long-term poverty. 

So despite the fact that they do account for a portion of the 
working population, 

they still account for a huge proportion of people 

in the United States living in long-term poverty. 

And the reasons for that are what we are going to discuss today. 

Part of that is that we know that only 32 percent 

of working age people with disabilities are employed, 

compared to 73 percent of working age people without 
disabilities. 

So that discrepancy, there is a huge employment discrepancy 
there. 

We also know that when this report was created 

approximately 228,000 people or so with intellectual and 
developmental disabilities 

specifically worked for subminimum wage. 

And we are going to talk more about subminimum wage, but it is 
what it sounds like. 

These are people who are allowed by federal labor law 

to work for less than the federal minimum wage because 

of a particular provision in the fair labor act. 

We will talk a little bit more about that, 

but there is a huge group of people who are working who have 
disabilities 

who aren't even making minimum wage, you might be making cents 

per hour or a couple of dollars per hour. 

We also know that 60 percent of domestic violence survivors 

reported losing their job as a direct consequence of the abuse. 

There are a lot of reasons for this. 

Perhaps the abuser was going to the workplace and harassing them 
at their workplace, 

and of their employer found it disruptive to the work 
environment. 

Perhaps they were unable to come into work 

because they were experiencing abuse 


or violence and needed to address that, or they were dealing 
with that. 

We also know that 99 percent of domestic violence survivors 

have experienced financial abuse. It is very common in the 
cycle 

of power and control to use financial abuse 

as the one weapon, one way to exert control 

over the survivor. 

And this might mean controlling access to bank accounts 

or taking the income of the person 

and not letting them have any disposable income or access to 
disposable income. 

It might look like giving people -- taking away people's 
belongings 

or only providing a certain standard of living that maybe is 

subpar. So there is a variety of ways 

that could play out but it is very common to see financial abuse 

when we are talking about particularly domestic violence. 

We also know that almost 40 percent of African-Americans 

with disabilities live in poverty. 

So almost 40 percent. That is a huge number of people. 

We also know that only 24 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 

29 percent of Latinos, and 19 percent of Asians 

with disabilities live in poverty. So you can see that even 

amongst people with disabilities there are great disparities in 
poverty levels 

for people based upon their race. 

And lastly we know that women living in poverty 

are nearly twice as likely to experience domestic violence. 

And People of Color are more likely to live in poverty. 

And so all of these statistics are compounded together 

mean that particularly people with disabilities and particularly 
People of Color with disabilities 

are experiencing high rates of victimization, 

they are experiencing forced poverty that continues over periods 
of time, 

and they are experiencing underemployment or unemployment. 

So what is the impact of economic insecurity? 

What does this mean for the person? 

It can mean a few different things. 

First is it can affect physical health. 

A while back, less so today but a while back 

there were huge exposes often about how housing projects 

reusing lead-based paint and it was making an entire generation 

of children who lived in housing projects sick. 

That's an example of a physical effect. 

Other physical effects might be because of access to health care 


or lack of access to health care which we will talk about. 

It could also be because 

of a lack of access to food, food insecurity. 

Increased homelessness. All of these things can have physical 
effects on a person. 

They can also have mental health effects. 

So there is an elevated stress level 

in communities experiencing greater poverty. 

Stress can lead to anxiety, it can lead to depression, 

and all of these things are interrelated to poverty 

and studies have shown that 

poverty really perpetuates some of these mental health issues 
even more. 

We also know that poverty is obviously connected 

to homelessness and the need to provide stable housing, 

and not having stable housing can have a lot of effects on a 
person's education, 

on a person's physical and mental health, on there access to 
health care, 

on there access to services. 

We also know that 

poverty leads to food insecurity, and a lot of impoverished 
neighborhoods 

deal with food deserts where they don't have access to healthy 
food 

or non-processed food in the same way that wealthier 
neighborhoods do. 

People who were living in poverty 

or have economic insecurity also might face 

a lack of health care, and this is a big issue 

for survivors with disabilities particularly 

because they might not have access 

to life-sustaining medication. 

They might have less access to quality doctors. 

For example, if they are on Medicaid, for example, 

the doctors that take Medicaid these days, because of lower 
reimbursement rates, 

are much more limited and often times not of the same quality 

as those who take private insurance or even Medicare. 

And so sometimes people with disabilities 

who are living in poverty experience a lack of ability to even 
get health care 

or perhaps they have an emergency but they don't want to go to 
the emergency room 

because they cannot afford the bill that will come from the 
emergency room, 


or they don't want to go to the doctor to get medication they 
might need 

because of costs associated with it. 

This can have really severe long-term physical and mental health 
effects. 

And it can cause lasting damage when people are not able to 
access the health care they need. 

We also know that 

people who are facing economic insecurity 

are also at an increased risk of victimization. 

The Bureau of Justice statistics 

which is the organization within the Department of Justice 

who tracks a lot of these trends and does some data mining 
around this, 

they said that from 2008 to 2012, a little bit of an older 
statistic but still relevant, 

persons who lived in households below the federal poverty level 

had more than double the rate of violent victimization. 

So they were much more likely to experience 

violent victimization. 

And that this time the federal poverty level was I believe 
$48,000 for a family of four per year. 

So all of these things create lasting long-term impacts 

on people with disabilities. 

Physical health can decline, symptoms can increase, 

issues that people dealt with maybe if they were not in poverty 

can be exacerbated because of the lack of economic security. 

They might face homelessness or be unable to eat certain foods 

or have access to healthier food. Lack of access to health care 
and increased victimization. 

We are going to take a quick pause right now to switch 
interpreters. 

It looks like we are already so I will keep moving forward, 
thank you so much. 

So now that we have heard a little bit about the impact, 

we wanted to talk about the barriers. 

What are survivors with disabilities really facing 

and what does this mean, what do these barriers really mean for 
folks out there living in the real world. 

And some of the barriers we are going to talk about today 

are listed here. The first is 

we mentioned a little bit about supplemental security insurance. 

Renee is going to talk a little bit more about SSI as we will 
call it in just a minute. 

But SSI is a federally funded program 

for people with disabilities. 


It is not what we think of when we think of, quote unquote, 
disability from the federal government. 

The federal government has two disability programs. 

The first of which is Social Security disability 

which is SSDI, and this is what we pay into 

for those of us who work for organizations that get taxes taken 
out, 

those taxes go partially towards paying for 

disability insurance were we ever to become disabled. 

We would be able to apply and receive the money that we have 
paid in as disability. 

People who don't have work histories, 

whether that is because they were 

disabled from a young age and were unable to work, 

or because they don't have what the federal government considers 
to be 

sufficient work history, or for many other reasons 

don't qualify for SSDI. So we have this other program 

that is funded by federal taxes 

that we all pay into. It is what would typically be referred to 

as a welfare program, meaning that it is not something you pay 
into and you get back, 

it's a general fund, and this is supplemental security insurance 

which is what we are really going to talk about today. 

But it's important to know the difference between the two 

because when we think about policy and we think about the ways 
in which barriers are created 

for survivors with disabilities, it's important to recognize 

that the way that federal policy addresses 

those two programs looks very different. 

And people who have -- who are getting SSDI, the one you pay 
into from your taxes, 

are treated very differently. And as we go through some more 
about supplemental security insurance 

we will talk about some of those differences, but really there 
are many fewer restrictions. 

And there are many fewer hoops you have to jump through to 
qualify. 

And part of that is an intentional policy decision 

that they made when they created these two programs. 

That people who did not pay into it, that did not have the 
financial resources to pay into the program 

over the years would have sort of a lesser standard of what is 

given to them, and also have a higher burden of proof 

in showing what they need. They also receive 

less money per month than most people who are on SSDI. 

And Renee is going to go through that in just a minute 


and talk about some other considerations there including income 
limits 

and resource limits and the marriage penalty. 

We are also going to talk about subminimum wage. 

We are going to talk about unemployment and underemployment for 
people with disabilities. 

Financial abuse, and the increased expenses 

that people with disabilities face that we don't necessarily 

account for in our policymaking decisions. 

We are going to start going through these by talking about SSI 
and Medicaid 

and I will turn it over to Renee to start off with that part of 
the discussion. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: Thank you Ashley. 

I'm going to talk about the SSI on the Medicaid income limits, 

but I also want to let you know that I will speak from a very 
personal level. 

Because I have lived through this and 

although I don't now, I did at one time 

and I would like to just add some of my own personal experience. 

We will start with supplemental security insurance, SSI, 

which is a needs-based federal program 

that helps people with disabilities who have little or no income 
because of a disability 

and do not have sufficient work history for social security 
disability insurance. 

It provides cash to meet basic needs for food clothing and 
shelter. 

Eligibility for Medicaid for people with disabilities is 
connected to SSI in many states. 

It can provide medical insurance, personal care assistance, and 
more. 

Ashley, the next one. 

Okay, right now the current income limits 

are $783 per month for an individual 

and $1175 per month for a couple right now in 2020. 

So what counts as income? 

Well, any asset or resource limit. 

Countable resources cannot be worth more than $2000 for an 
individual 

or $3000 for a couple. 

One of the things I want to talk about his first of all 

the income limits. I don't know about where you live 

but I know where I live here in Austin, Texas, 

if you want to get an apartment 

you almost have to go to section 8 housing 


because the apartment, to get an apartment here in Austin 

is at least over $1000 a month. 

Even people with jobs can't even afford an apartment. 

We also want to be careful with what counts as income. 

A lot of people don't know but you can get gifts from people, 

if they give you money or they are trying to help you, like my 
parents tried to help me at one time 

by giving me $100 a month, but that is considered income and it 
would be held against me. 

So there are many times when you can't receive anything 

because you are afraid of that and being held against you. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Renee, can I jump in for one second, this 
is Ashley. 

I did want to add some stuff around the income and the 
resources. 

Income is what you are allowed to make per month. 

And the limits are set based upon 

what the monthly SSI payment is. 

So right now this year the monthly SSI payment 

is a standard, it is $783 for one person. 

It is $1175 if both 

partners in a couple are on SSI. 

So what does that mean if you get $100, like in Renee's 
circumstances? 

If you get $100 and it becomes what SSI considers 

income meaning it becomes known to them 

they will subtract that $100 from your monthly payment from 
them. 

So they will decrease dollar for dollar 

the amount of money you received based upon any additional 
income that you have. 

It's also important to know that for example 

if you get free housing, if you live with family members, for 
example, 

this is really common, they can subtract a certain amount of 
money 

in what we call in-kind income 

which means because you were living there for free 

they can say that might cost $300 a month if they were going to 
pay rent, 

so we are going to subtract $300 a month from their payment. 

So just because you have found a free housing situation 

does not mean it will not count in some way as income. 

The other thing to think about is if you live with your parents, 

sometimes there income can count as what is called deemed income 


which means because you are a dependent of them there income 
matters. 

This happens a lot with kids who are on SSI, 

so children who need SSI in order to get connected to Medicaid 

may not qualify if the parents make over a certain amount of 
money. 

And then for resources or assets, 

it's important to note that a homestead to the house that you 
live in, 

that is the house that you own that you live in is not 
necessarily counted as an asset. 

But any additional property of any kind that you own might be 
considered an asset. 

Savings could be considered an asset 

unless you have the savings in a particular type of savings 
account 

that they created a few years ago for people with disabilities. 

And stocks, any sort of resources that you have, 

money, cars in many cases, 

and then the other thing is retroactive SSI. 

In many cases when you apply for SSI, 

it's a process. It could take upwards of a couple of years 

to actually get approved for SSI if you have to go through an 
appeals process. 

When you go through those appeals processes 

typically what happens is if you win your appeal 

you will get a lump sum of back pay, retroactive SSI. 

What you would have gotten all of those months when your appeal 
was pending. 

So what does that mean? 

You get this lump sum of money, but you are only allowed to have 
$2000 in assets. 

So what happens when you get a year's worth of back pay, 

you have nine months to spend that back pay. 

If you don't spend it in nine months, 

it becomes considered a resource and it can be counted against 
you. 

So they are encouraging people not to save money through this 
process. 

And they are encouraging people 

to spend the money that they get instead of saving for a safety 
net. 

Again, there are specific savings accounts, 

they are called ABLE accounts, and that is an acronym but 

I don't know what it stands for at the moment 

but these are accounts that are specifically designed for people 
with disabilities where they can save money 


and it is not counted as an asset, but you have to know that 
they exist. 

You have to know that you need them. 

And thank you so much to Cynthia in the chat to posted its 
achieving a better life experience, that is what the ABLE 
acronym stands for, thank you so much. 

You have to know that they exist, you have to know how to set 
one up, you have to know to reach out to. 

So more hoops that people have to jump through. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: And it also forces you to live in poverty 

which is what we are trying to say. 

This is Renee by the way. 

If your current income is $783 as an individual 

and then you try to save some money but you still have to pay 
for groceries 

and you still have to pay for transportation 

and you still have to pay for your monthly rent, 

it really does not leave much for you to say. 

So even though getting that ABLE account was a great stride, 

I really don't know that many people who are able to save too 
much 

just because of the limitation on the income limit. 

Okay, the marriage penalty, the SSI marriage penalty. 

I know a lot about this one. 

For a single person on SSI benefit, you get $783. 

If you are a married couple on SSI 

you get $1175. 

So if you add the 783×2 

it comes out to a lot less than what you get is a married 
couple. 

I think you lose at least $200, I haven't done the math and I 
apologize for that. 

So a single person, the asset limit is $2000, 

but if you are a married couple the asset limit is $3000. 

One of the things I wanted to bring up, 

first of all I think it was back in the 1990s, 

I was with a person that I considered to be my husband 

but because we were both on SSI, 

we knew we could not get married because we would lose our 
benefits. 

And we would also lose -- you not only lose your benefits, 

you could also lose your attendant care because that too 

is considered according to your income and if you are married to 
someone 

with a disability and they are requiring attendant care as well 

then you cannot afford it, and he was disabled, I was disabled, 


we were both on SSI and even though they say that a couple 
combined 

the reason they lower the amount is if you live together 

then it should not cost as much as living separately because you 
are sharing the same home, 

you are sharing the same food source, 

you are sharing everything so it should be less. 

So like it says here the theory is that a couple can live on 
less income than they would as individuals. 

And I can tell you, as many of you probably know, 

that is not true because you are also paying for two for 
everything. 

Double the groceries and double the electric bill, and so 

I don't know where they got the understanding, 

the idea of two people receiving SSI get married, they will 
receive 25 percent less 

in benefits than they did as two individuals. 

The third bullet down, in addition even if a couple doesn't get 
legally married 

they can be considered to be holding out 

if they are presenting themselves as a couple. 

I remember that when I was with my ex 

we had to pretend we were just friends 

and we could not let people know that we were an actual couple, 

we told people we were roommates and we did this because both of 
us being disabled 

we were terrified of people finding out that we were a couple 

and then reporting us to Social Security 

and what would we do then. 

And that is where we go to the next bullet 

which is two any people with disabilities must choose between 
getting married 

or continuing to receive the benefits they need to live. 

So pretty much you are left with having to pick two out of 
three, 

you can either have marriage, economic security, and 
comprehensive health coverage, 

you get either one of those and most of us cannot live without 
it. 

We literally need someone to come in and get us out of bed in 
the morning just to survive. 

And that is something you do not want to jeopardize no matter 
what is happening. 

So we did live together, he and I, 

but we did not call ourselves a couple. 

And yes, we were holding out, 

and so it was all we could do to keep surviving. 


And then the fourth bullet, 

the penalty could impact a survivor with a disability 

even after leaving their partner. 

The other thing I wanted to say about this marriage penalty 

is I looked up to find out when did this begin, 

why are these rules so stringent. 

I found by doing some research 

that it kind of started back 

in the 1920s 

back in the eugenics movement 

were many people with disabilities were being forcibly 
sterilized. 

The point being to get rid of anything in the human gene pool 

that were considered undesirable. 

So in 1927, the Supreme Court decision 

was never overturned, but eventually 

it stopped and most people think this was just wrong of course 

but unfortunately a lot of our -- a lot of the marriage penalty 

stems from that old antiquated idea that I am hoping we could 
change soon. 

So I believe we are going to pause for a minute 

because we need to change interpreters. 

Okay, we are back. 

The next slide please. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Renee, this is Ashley, 

can I just add something? 

The penalty, when we talk about the penalty 

impacting the survivor with a disability even after leaving 
their partner, 

I wanted to put a little bit of a finer pin in that point 

which is that even if they 

-- if the survivor leaves the abuser they are married to 

and creates their own household, has their own home 

away from their abuser, if they are still married to their 
abuser, 

the abuser's income might still be considered and deemed income 

which means that they still might not qualify for SSI 

despite the fact that 

their income might be very low or nonexistent. 

The other thing I wanted to mention before we moved forward 

is there is a lot of talk about 

how did they come to this figure of $783, 

it seems like such a random number. 

They started with some bizarre calculations 

when SSI first started around the cost of living, 

around average incomes, and you have to remember 


that was many decades ago. 

Since that time when they started with those initial 

calculations there has not really been a huge increase. 

There is usually a yearly cost-of-living increase, 

but it's a couple of dollars, and so what you see is 

every year or so they will tack on a couple of dollars to what 
was already the pre-existing amount 

and that's why it goes up in such a small increments. 

During the recession there were years when it went up by 
virtually nothing. 

Some years it goes up by a couple of dollars a month. 

So I just wanted to point that out. 

There is also a lot of questions coming in 

about ABLE accounts. I will say that I am not an expert in ABLE 
accounts 

and I don't think Renee is either, but someone in the chat 

put in the website for the national ABLE account resource 
center, 

so I would suggest if you are interested in learning more about 
that 

to go to that website. I think they also provide technical 
assistance 

around ABLE accounts as well. 

So hopefully that will be helpful to those of you were looking 
for more information there. 

And then there is one other question I wanted to address 

just because it was on this topic which is 

what about people who share an apartment, are they considered a 
couple 

or is each counted individually? 

That depends. You can be a roommate, you can have a roommate 

and not be a couple. Lots of people have platonic roommates. 

That would not be considered to be a couple. 

However if you hold yourself out to be married in some way, 

even if you are not legally married but you say you are married 
or you call someone your husband or wife or partner 

and tell people that end 

do what is called holding out, which is basically 

telling people that you are in this partnership or this 
marriage, 

then you would be counted as a couple. 

So that is what it is dependent on, 

not whether you live or someone, and as Renee said she lived 
with someone is a roommate for many years 

because that is what was required. Roommates don't necessarily 
count as a couple. 

 


>> RENEE LOPEZ: Right, exactly. 

And one of the things I wanted to add was 

I wanted to add that personally in my opinion 

it was rather humiliating to be in love with someone 

MBNA relationship and not be able to 

show that you are together. You now, it's -- 

that became a real issue that I think may have ended our 
relationship 

many years ago, and because 

it feels like it is shameful and you have to hide 

and not let people know. I mean, it's not that nobody knew, 

but people outside of your family and friends, you certainly 
could not go out 

and claim to be a couple or to be married 

because you could be, quote, holding out. 

And if they found out we would be in big trouble. 

We would have to pay back the money 

or the SSI would stop. 

And I also wanted to add that 

when we mentioned the amount of money that someone gets now 
which I think was $753 or something, 

that is not much more than what I was getting back in the 1980s. 

In the 1980s I was getting 500 and something dollars a month 

on SSI, and you could see that that was almost want, 20 or 30 
years ago, 

I'm not good at math, but it has only gone up by $200. 

And that is really a shame because a person cannot live on that 
kind of money. 

Especially with the cost of living going up. 

Okay, subminimum-wage. 

Section 14 C of the fair labor standards act 

allows employers certified by the United States Department of 
Labor 

to compensate persons with disabilities for work at a rate less 
than the minimum-wage. 

Few people who work in sheltered workshops and other subminimum-
wage jobs 

for people with disabilities transition to market paying 
employment. 

This is not necessarily true and there was a lot of controversy 

about this subminimum-wage. Initially it started because 

they wanted to pay people with disabilities in particular people 
with intellectual disabilities 

to be able to have a job and a place to go 

and to do something at an amount of money that would not 
interfere with their SSI. 

But lately, currently I guess 


there is a move to change that because 

it is sort of seen as exploiting people with disabilities. 

Some rates go as low as two dollars an hour. 

Some people are against that and saying they should be paid at 
least minimum-wage. 

And to make sure they don't lose their disability, but as you 
can tell, 

if you are only allowed to make a certain amount of money which 
is really low, 

then you can see how raising the amount of money they are making 

could be detrimental. So right now in our disability community 

we are not sure which way to go. I know that it can be 

a place for people to go and do some work 

and to be contributing to society, but it also gives 

certain companies a way of exploiting because 

if you only have to pay two dollars an hour to get something 
done, you will make a lot of money off of that. 

And so that right now is something that is 

certainly taking place, wondering which way we should go. 

A lot of people that have 

individuals with disabilities working in the sheltered workshops 

don't want to give them up because then what will happen to that 
person? 

They won't have a place to go, they will be at home, 

and so many of them have sort of become a way of, quote, 
babysitting people with disabilities 

while they are doing subminimum-wage work. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: I wanted to add something here, 

I've seen a lot of these sheltered workshops which were designed 
to give people something to do which would not interfere with 
their benefits, 

I have seen them paying as low as $0.50 an hour in my 
experience, 

I think it varies depending on the state and the industry. 

A lot of times these are jobs like 

putting together doodads, little things or -- 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: One of them is making pens for the state. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: So it is jobs like that. 

I think the original goal, 

the original goal when this exception to minimum wage was passed 

was that we would train people and in some way, shape, or form 

we were transition folks to standard pay employment. 

That was sort of the goal and that is still the articulated goal 
today, 


that we will transition 

folks 

to full employment 

or two standard pay employment 

and we will teach them skills that they can then transfer. 

Oftentimes this does not happen the way it is designed. 

I appreciate Jan's comment, 

some states have passed state laws that ban this practice. 

Again, the federal government sets the floor for rights, not the 
ceiling, 

so you can have state laws that are more protective of people's 
rights 

than the federal government, but the federal government and be 
fair labor standards act, 

the federal law that governs the minimum wage allows for this 
practice still. 

I will say a lot of advocacy organizations, as Renee said, 

they struggle with this and this is an area that is really 
contentious for them. 

A lot of them are looking towards how can we reform the program 

to truly make it an opportunity for people to transition to 
standard employment. 

I can we make it so it's not just people working the same 

sub minimum wage job for 30 or 40 years 

but instead it really becomes training for them to transition to 
full employment. 

Is a lot of work going into what would make more sense 

given the complications that Renee shared. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: And Ashley, one of the things I wanted to 
mention 

is there are two really good documentaries about this if you 
want to know more about it. 

One of them is called bottom dollars 

which exposes the exploitation 

of nearly 250,000 people with disabilities in the US 

that are being paid less than two dollars. 

Another one is called rooted in rights. 

I have seen both of them and they are both excellent, 

I will put them in the chat and if anyone is interested in 
seeing that, 

seeing either one of those can help you learn a lot about that. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: The PowerPoint just skip ahead, sorry about 
that. 

Technology. 

So next we want to transition to talking about 


unemployment and underemployment. 

We have talked a little bit about this already, 

but the unemployment rate for people with disabilities in 2019 

was 7.3 percent, which was much higher than the unemployment 
rate 

for people without disabilities. 

And there is a number of reasons for this. 

Just like a lot of the issues that we have with SSI, 

a lot of the issues we have with sub minimum wage, 

employment for people with disabilities still is really fraught 

with outdated and inaccurate ideas 

about people with disabilities. 

They still struggle to be hired 

and they struggle to stay in their jobs for a variety of 
reasons. 

A lot of people still deal with 

perpetuated myths about 

people with disabilities not being able to do the job they are 
hired for 

or two needing so much assistance that it becomes impossible. 

And there are all of these ideas that the person will be too 
difficult to work with, 

they aren't going to, quote unquote, get their job. 

These are all not necessarily true 

and oftentimes they are not true 

but they are these continuing stereotypes about people with 
disabilities 

that make them less likely to be hired, 

particularly for full-time employment. 

They also are less likely to stay in their jobs 

and this is partially because 

of the fact that sometimes they don't have the accommodations 

they need to do their jobs well, whether they are unable to ask 
for them 

or the ask for them and they are denied, it can be sometimes 
really difficult 

to get their needs met in the way that makes sense for them to 
be able to do their job. 

People with disabilities are perfectly able to work 

in a wide variety of employment situations. 

They need to be allowed in the door 

and sometimes they are not, they are blocked from even being 
hired. 

The other thing to think about when we talk about survivors with 
disabilities is that sexual violence, 

domestic assault, stalking, and other types of victimization 

can also have a negative impact on employment. 


We saw that statistic early on about the employment impact 

of experiencing some kind of interpersonal violence. 

And we know that domestic violence 

can oftentimes impact the workplace, 

it can be brought into the workplace in a variety of ways. 

A lot of people who were experience particularly domestic 
violence and stalking 

but also sexual violence have it come into the workplace 

and it can have a negative impact on their employment. 

And again this is a decision 

that employers need to make to change policies around. 

To say that we are going to have a policy 

around providing accommodations, have a policy around 

ensuring that we don't take action against an employee 

because of violence that they are experiencing in their lives. 

And we will talk more about that in the solutions section. 

But it's important to recognize that unemployment and 
underemployment, 

a lot of times what we will see happen is people with 
disabilities 

will get part-time job so they will work for a couple of hours a 
week here and there. 

And that is considered something, 

but not necessarily ideal. 

I am going to pause for just one moment for an interpreter 
switch. 

Okay, great. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: Ashley, I wanted to add something. 

When I was looking for work after I got my Masters degree 

I thought I was armed with a good -- was something that would 
show I had intelligence and will 

and all of those things that would help me get a job. 

And I remember going to jobs 

I went to one job or I was told 

Honey, why don't you just go back home and let your parents take 
care of you, 

there is no reason for you to have to work, you can get a check. 

And I remember being really hurt and upset about that 

because that is not what I wanted to do. 

I had lived on SSI and section 8 housing 

and really that is a very difficult life, as you can imagine. 

And it was not until 1990, I got hired before 1990, 

with a lot of luck and perseverance, 

but when the Americans With Disabilities Act came out 

protecting us, it was civil rights for people with disabilities, 

you could never say that to someone nowadays. 


But the truth is that trying to hold down a job 

can be very difficult because you have to have an attendant 

that can come in early, I had to be at work by 8 o'clock 

so I had to have an attendant come in to get me ready on time 

and hopefully they did not need to take off and if they did who 
would be my backup 

and how would I get to work and I took the Metro special transit 
system to and from work 

and I hoped they would not be late so I would not be late, 

and how I managed to work 30 years I don't know, it was a lot of 
pushing and pulling I can tell you that. 

But those other things you have to consider when you do take on 
a job. 

I managed to make it through 

but there were a lot of people who could not get to work because 
the attendant did not show up 

with a missed too much or they could not find a ride and it 
escalates 

to where a lot of people cannot work a full-time job. 

So they work a few days a week or have a part-time, 

and so that is what goes with trying to work full-time. 

There is more than just getting a job, it is people's attitudes, 

it is attendant care and when I got my job 

I stopped getting Medicaid that paid for my attendant care so I 
had to pay out of pocket, 

and that was taking up more of my check then when I lived. 

So I started thinking well, 

if I have to pay so much 

for attendant care just so I can work 

but I am only able to spend have that money, is it really worth 
working? 

So anyway I won't go into it more than that, 

but that is the consideration you have to think about when you 
consider going to work full time. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Absolutely, thank you Renee, so much. 

The other thing to be thinking about 

is the fact that most survivors in general 

experience financial abuse as part of the course of power and 
control exercised against them. 

Financial abuse is very common particularly 

in domestic violence and other types of interpersonal violence. 

When a survivor has a disability, 

they are often that even more of a risk for financial abuse 

because of additional considerations. 

They are often forced to trust other people with their finances. 

So representative payees, 


if a person is on SSI or SSDI 

and they are considered to have a disability that affects 

their ability to manage their finances, so typically this would 
be 

an intellectual or developmental disability 

or a mental health disability, 

if the Social Security Administration determines 

that they are not able to handle their own finances 

they will ask that someone be appointed a representative payee. 

This person is not a guardian, they can't make life decisions 
for the person 

but they can have control over the person's finances. 

I am a representative payee for a person in my life 

and I have complete control over her finances 

in the sense that she is not even allowed by the Social Security 
Administration 

to have a debit card for her account, for her own bank account. 

So you have a lot of power as a representative payee. 

You are required to manage a person's bills, 

so they are trusting you to pay their bills on time. 

They are trusting you to make sure that if you are paying for 
insurance premiums of any kind, 

those are getting paid, and that doctors and other medical care, 
attendant care, etc., 

is getting paid. And also that you are managing their savings, 

that you were not going out and spending their money. 

And representative payees can be a variety of people. 

They can be family members, they can be partners 

or they can be professionals. 

So there are disability organizations that are professional 
representative payees 

that provide representative payee services to the people they 
serve. 

They can be a wide variety of people, 

and once you are a person's representative payee have basically 
complete access and control 

over their finances. And in the eyes of the Social Security 
Administration, 

you are the person that they are paying every month. 

And so what you have to do as a representative payee 

to make sure that you were not stealing from someone 

to make sure that you are not mishandling someone's money. 

Once a year you have to fill out accounting paperwork 

that basically asks you how much you spent on the person's rent, 

how much you spent on their other expenses, 

how much they saved for the year, and you have to sign it under 
penalty of perjury. 


That's really it. 

If they are suspicious of something 

they might ask you to do an interview, they might want further 
interaction, 

but there is not a ton of oversight for representative payees. 

And these are people who have access to everything that a person 
might own. 

The other way in which survivors with disabilities 

are at even more risk for financial abuse 

is they might have guardians in whichever state they are in. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: Ashley, I want to say I know a lot of people 

who experience abuse because of this thing right here. 

It is easy to coerce someone into doing something 

or do any kind of abuse towards them 

because you can always threaten to not pay the bills are not 
paid the attendant 

are not give them any money and some people keep money for 
themselves as well. 

So I know for a fact that this causes a lot of abuse. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Absolutely. 

And the other is guardians. 

Guardians have much more control than representative payees. 

They have the ability to control more than just the income the 
person is receiving 

from the Social Security Administration. 

As I mentioned the Social Security Administration 

appoints a representative payee to manage finances 

from the Social Security Administration, your SSI or SSDI 
checks. 

Guardians have much more extensive powers than that 

depending on the type of guardian or conservatorship that 
exists. 

That might have power over decision-making involving 

any type of finances, that might have power over medical 
decision-making, 

that might have power over things like housing decisions. 

And other types of decisions 

depending on the type of guardianship. 

So again this is an opportunity where 

if someone wanted to, there would be a way 

to really 

just take advantage of these positions 

that people are in. 

And so we really need to be thinking about that, 


we need to be cognizant of that, those of us that work in direct 
services 

should be -- if we know someone on SSI or SSDI, 

we should be asking if they have a representative payee and 
being a check on that. 

And people have guardians being a check on that as well. 

Just to ensure that we are keeping that on our radar. 

So the other thing we wanted to talk about 

is increased expenses. Survivors with disabilities 

face additional costs compared to people without disabilities. 

They might have increased transportation costs 

because they might need private transportation 

or retrofitted vehicles of some kind 

which cost a lot more. They might need, like Renee talked 
about, 

personal care attendant services are direct support services. 

Those cost money and if you don't qualify 

for Medicaid, Medicaid pays for portions of that sometimes, 

in some states through different programs, 

but if you don't qualify for Medicaid oftentimes you are paying 
for that out of pocket. 

This also things like medical supplies and in addition medical 
and mental health costs 

associated with having a disability. So despite the fact that 
we talked about 

all of the ways in which people with disabilities receive 

less income, there is still -- they still have increased 
expenses. 

So solutions for change. 

We identified a lot of barriers today. 

And we wanted to pivot to think about 

what are some solutions, and I know we only have about 25 
minutes left, 

but I wanted to maybe for a minute or two ask you to type in the 
chat 

solutions that you can think of. 

Whether it's a concrete solution that you can implement or think 
about 

or whether it is a big policy change we could accomplish. 

What are some solutions that you might think 

could work? 

And you can type it in the chat. 

If you would have anything that you would like to add. 

We will go over some that Renee and I thought about 

but I would love to hear from you all, and if you have any feel 
free to put them in the chat. 


While we wait to that there are more questions relating to SSI 
that I thought we could answer. 

One of them is our representative payees paid from client salary 
or other sources? 

It depends. If you are a representative payee 

like if you are a, quote unquote, professional representative 
payee 

like you are an organization that provides representative payee 
services to your clients 

as part of the suite of services you offer, 

you will get paid typically from a small portion of their 
benefit 

or from the Social Security Administration directly 

or from your state depending on the program. 

If you are a family member or friend 

you don't typically get paid for a representative payee role. 

What exactly makes someone eligible for SSI? 

There is a lot. You have to have a qualifying disability, 

you have to be under the income requirements, 

there's a lot that goes into that that will get really 
complicated 

and it depends on the particular case. A lot of times people 
have to appeal. 

I highly recommend finding an attorney who is qualified 

in working on SSI cases for any issues 

involving decreases in benefits or denials, which I am seeing 
come up in the Q&A 

so I wanted to quickly address that. 

So solutions are coming in. 

Raise SSI, reduce restrictions, health care for all. 

Ensure transparency and oversight. 

Policy increases, changes to increased payment amounts. 

Remove the marriage penalty. 

Have resources available for those who need assistance. 

These are all great. 

Improve the amount of money for SSI. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: Sorry, I wanted to add something. 

Many people are saying to increase the amount of money 

for assets and I agree with that, 

but I am with the advocacy groups that I work with here in 
Austin 

and we try so hard every single year 

for the last 10 or 15 years going to the capital 

and trying to get an increase not only in the amount of money 
SSI 

individuals get but also to increase the amount of money 


for attendant care because attendants 

are still getting minimum wage and nobody wants to work for 
minimum wage, I can tell you that. 

So there is less and less people available to do this kind of 
work, 

and when that happens and a person cannot live independently in 
the community, 

when that happens I have to go stay in a nursing home. 

So it's all kind of going backwards, 

but we are working really hard to do that. I want you to know 

that it is not something that is overlooked or nobody is doing 
anything. 

We do this every time the legislature is in session. 

I just wanted to bring that up. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Yes, there is constant advocacy efforts 

going on at the state level which Renee participates in in 
Texas. 

And also a lot of national work 

because SSI and SSDI are both federal legislation 

and amending them would really -- those two programs, amending 
them 

would largely come from the federal government so there was a 
lot of federal advocacy going on as well. 

The first solution we thought of 

is ensuring that we are engaging impacted people in the work. 

Ensuring that survivors with disabilities, especially survivors 
of color with disabilities 

who as we talked about are already the most impacted 

and the most likely to experience poverty and economic 
insecurity 

we need to make sure that they are involved in conversations 

about advocacy and reform. 

And not just involved in conversations with the advocates, 

but also involved in conversations directly with the people who 
can make change. 

Like Renee talked about how she goes out and advocates 

with the legislature. That is advocacy that people with 
disabilities 

can engage in to be a part of the actual process, not just 
behind the scenes. 

And that says a few things. It puts a personal perspective on 
statistics 

and policies. There is something that we talk about a lot 

which is winning the hearts and minds of people. You need to 
talk to them 

about how we make this work, what does it look like financially, 


but you also need to tell a compelling story. 

And empowering people to share their stories 

to the extent they feel comfortable can be really meaningful. 

Of course you want to make sure that is something they feel 
comfortable with, 

and only that they are sharing stories that they willingly want 
to share in a way they want to share them. 

But it can be very powerful if there are people 

that you know of who are willing to engage and have these 
conversations 

and share how it has impacted them. 

It is one thing to hear on paper that 

there is a marriage penalty, it's another thing to hear a story 

about people who could not get married because of the marriage 
penalty. 

So engaging people in the process, people with lived experiences 

are the experts on policies that affect them. 

As much as advocates want to do this work, 

and as much as advocates want to 

quote unquote be a voice for people who can't speak 

for themselves, people can speak for themselves. 

Sometimes they might need help doing that, they minded 
connections, 

but you can help connect them. You can help them come up with a 
way to tell their story, 

a way to engage with decision-makers that makes sense for them. 

But it's really, really important that they are meaningfully 
involved 

in the process from the beginning and that they are driving 

the agenda of what is happening. 

Because they are the ones that are experiencing the 
ramifications 

of changes or the ramifications of not changing things. 

They are the ones who have lived it and understand it 

more than advocates ever will. 

And so our first suggestion is when you are starting to think 
about these issues 

engage people with disabilities, engage survivors, 

start talking to them about what they are experiencing in your 
community. 

Start asking them if they wanted to make changes what would they 
look like. 

Start talking to them about options for starting to make change 

and how they can be involved. Sometimes our role as advocates 

is to facilitate people to make connections 

to be able to do the work. 

 


>> RENEE LOPEZ: And Ashley, I want to emphasize 

that especially People of Color, because 

you gave the statistic early on 

and it's just incredibly high that People of Color 

are experiencing more poverty than anybody else, and I want to 
emphasize that 

because I think it's very important for us to get that kind of 
feedback. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Absolutely, thank you so much for putting a 
pin on that as well. 

And then think about individual advocacy. 

A lot of times we are talking about high-level policy changes 

that need to be made. We are talking about changes to federal 
legislation 

or state legislation or state programs. 

I am going to pause for a quick moment to allow for our final 
interpreters which. 

Okay, I think we are good. 

So a lot of times it feels really impossible, 

especially for those of us who are advocates 

working on a local level in our community 

to even think about big policy change. 

So what can you do in your local community, individual advocacy? 

Learn more about these programs. Learn about SSDI and SSI. 

Make connections with the protection and advocacy agency 

in your state, make connections with other programs 

that have done this work like ADAPT or independent living 
centers in your community. 

They are going to have this really deep institutionalized 
knowledge 

about what this looks like and how to create change 

that you can start implementing. But really, learn about all of 
these options 

that people have. How do they get on disability? 

How can they qualify for Medicaid, how can they qualify for SNAP 

which is food assistance. What are the limitations of these 
programs, 

and particularly now unemployment. 

We hosted a listening session with some people with disabilities 

around COVID-19, and one of the things that one of the self 
advocates 

really felt strongly about was we need to talk about 
unemployment for people with disabilities right now more than 
ever. 

Because they are experiencing more unemployment now 


than ever before because they are the first to be let go from 
their jobs. 

They are the first to be asked not to come back. 

And so how can you connect people to unemployment resources, 

or if they are not employed to vocational rehabilitation and job 
training resources. 

Identifying all of those resources in your community 

and how to walk people through that process, and you are not 
going to be the expert. 

Maybe it is knowing some really good Social Security attorneys 

in your community, maybe it is knowing someone at Medicaid 

who can walk your clients through the process. 

There are many ways to start making these connections, 

but again knowing what you can do in your community. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: Ashley, this is Renee, 

I want to add a couple of things. 

One thing about Covid is that many people are working from home 

and that leaves an opportunity for people with disabilities 

to say they can work because they are obviously -- 

there are more and more jobs that you can do from home. 

Those of us with ADAPT have noticed that 

and there really isn't a reason why a person can't be hired to 
do a job 

if people are able to work from home. So that is one thing that 
Covid has shown us. 

The other thing is that although it is not listed here, 

I think it is to keep carrying. I think many people get 
complacent 

or they start thinking that well, this person really could not 
work. 

And even though you can get them on all of these programs, 

you want to make sure that the person knows that that is not the 
end of it. 

It does not end with SNAP or other programs 

and those are good things and it's good to know about them, but 

people with disabilities and other survivors, with these 
programs you get stuck in it. 

It becomes too easy to fall into living in supportive housing 

and getting a check and knowing how hard it is to go to work. 

So it is better to have -- yes, let's get these things in place 
when you need them 

but also let's have some help in getting a job so we can get 
people 

off of these services that can keep people locked in poverty. 

 


>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Absolutely, and this is Ashley, thank you 
Renee. 

So yes, really thinking about what in your community you can be 
doing 

and what you can be connecting people to. 

And then creating attitudinal change. 

Addressing ableism, racism, perceptions about survivors of 
domestic violence and that lead to discriminatory policies 
against them. 

Like Renee said in talking about the marriage penalty. 

The marriage penalty was created to keep people with 
disabilities 

from getting married and having children who might then have 
disabilities. 

That was the reason the marriage penalty was created. 

Those attitudes and policies, those attitudes are what impact 
policy, 

and until we really change those attitudes 

we aren't necessarily going to start changing policies. 

So really thinking about how we can create attitudinal change. 

And starting with education and training about intentional and 
unintentional impacts of policies. 

Talking about this is what Social Security administration 

has told us we are allowed to have his income and what we are 
not allowed to have his income, 

and can't you see how unfair this is. I think a lot of times 

people don't pay attention to these programs, and so bringing to 
light 

some of the issues with these policies and their foundations and 
ableism and racism 

and other discrimination is really helpful 

in thinking about how can we create change. 

And then of course policy advocacy. 

A lot of this can happen on the state level and the federal 
level. 

You know, supplemental security insurance reform, 

SSI reform is a big one, thinking about how can we change income 

and asset restrictions. The other big one is Medicaid expansion 

or Universal Health care. Ways in which we can ensure that 
people with disabilities 

are able to receive health care, and another area we know people 

are already advocating in is the subminimum wage 

and then increasing funding for supportive employment 

and vocational rehabilitation services. 

Again, these are areas in which you can start doing research, 

start reaching out to organizations who are doing this work. 


Renee and I can both connect you to organizations on state and 
federal levels 

who are doing this work already. 

And just start learning more about what the problems are 

and thinking through what solutions might look like. 

I think sometimes again the problems feel really big 

and so if we can make it more of a piece by piece strategy 

where we think can we fix this one issue, 

sometimes it's a little bit more palatable for folks. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: And vote! 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: And vote. We would always recommend that 

is another policy advocacy solution. 

And with that I think we are opening up for questions. 

Renee, we have a ton of questions in our Q&A. 

The first, and I know this is something you have talked about, 

is a SNAP benefits and food benefits. 

And during COVID-19 not wanting to necessarily go out to buy 
groceries 

and not being able to get them delivered whether because of 

the increased cost or because SNAP doesn't always in every state 
cover 

delivery services. 

And so this person is elevating that issue 

and I don't know if you had anything you wanted to add? 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: I don't know about other states, 

but this is been a big problem because of Covid. 

When you want to order groceries there is an up charge and I 
don't know because I have not ordered but there is an up charge. 

If you are on SSI you barely have any money for food to begin 
with 

and the pantries are all closed, so trying to get food will 
become a major issue. 

And here in Austin, I don't know about other counties 

or other cities or states but the food pantry 

has combined her resources with the capital Metro Access bus 

because they are not transporting as many people, only those 
that have to go to the doctor, 

to deliver food to those who have disabilities and cannot get 
out of the house. 

So that has helped tremendously with people getting food. 

You just call in and tell them you need food, you have a 
disability, 

you give them your address and they show up and give you a box 
of food. 


That's one we have taken care of it here in Austin, I don't know 
but other places 

but they probably have something similar. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Yes, we have encourage people 

to look at mutual aid organizations. 

Folks who are crowdsourcing some of this, there are disability 
focused ones as well. 

Who have been able to help in some of these situations 

with getting food and other necessary items 

to folks who otherwise cannot get them. 

Another question came through, 

Renee, you mentioned People of Color experiencing poverty more 
than others. 

Renee was referring to a statistic 

that said that almost 40 percent of African-Americans 

with disabilities experience poverty. 

This is supposed to 24 percent 

of non-Hispanic whites, 29 percent of Latinos, 

and 19 percent of Asians. So this is again people with 
disabilities. 

It's not a great breakdown but it is one of the very few 
statistics 

that we have that breaks down by race how people with 
disabilities experience poverty, 

and that statistic is linked in the PowerPoint so you can go 
right to the source there if you have any interest in that. 

But there is a wide range of literature 

talking about the disproportionate impact 

that particularly Black communities have experiencing poverty. 

Let's see what other questions we have in here. 

We have one asking about statistics of [can't understand] 
communities. 

I wasn't able to find anything specific to Native American 
communities. 

I am hoping to be able to find something moving forward on that. 

I think because of Covid we are doing a lot more thinking 

about some of these things and hoping that some more resources 
will come out. 

It's really difficult to find resources in general on disability 

in Native American communities, but we are working to try to 
find some of those resources. 

I appreciate you lifting that up as a question and I hope people 
have resources for you soon. 

 

>> RENEE LOPEZ: I wanted to mention that somebody said -- well, 
it moved and now I lost it. 


Gosh, where did it go. 

There is a Social Security check adult abuse registry allowing 
somebody to be a person's payee. 

I don't think they do but I think that's a great idea. 

There should be some kind of a crosscheck 

before they turn the money over to somebody. I think that's a 
really good idea. 

I will take that to my advocacy groups and see if we cannot get 
that done. 

 

>> ASHLEY BROMPTON: Yes, this is Ashley, and in my experience 

when I was asked to be a representative payee they had me sign a 
piece of paper 

attesting that I had never -- that I had no criminal history 
under penalty of perjury. 

As far as I know there was no actual background check done 

of any kind and if it was, 

it was very broad. 

I know we are getting low on time 

but I wanted to see -- is a question in here, for victims with 
disabilities, 

does victim compensation take into consideration specific 
allowed expenses? 

This is something we have been advocating for, 

that victim compensation programs need to be 

more educated about some of the unique expenses 

that victims with disabilities might have, 

and fund some of those expenses the way they fund other expenses 
for victims of crime. 

It will depend on your state's victim compensation program what 
that looks like. 

Because those are state administered, so I can't give a blanket 

descriptor order of that. But in some places 

they will be more flexible with what those funds can be spent on 
an insulator less flexible. 

It also depends on if there is any additional regulations in 
that particular state. 

There is a question in here about a reason for a decrease 

in SSI benefits. Typically if you see a recalculation 

of benefits it is because they have miscalculated 

the in-kind or deemed income that a person has. 

For example, if they have determined 

that you are receiving 

free rent where you are living, your living with family for 
example 

and you have free rent, they might recalculate what that free 
rent is worth 


or what it should be worth and reassess what you would get 
monthly. 

Same thing for other types of income. 

That is typically why, and sometimes I just make mistakes in the 
initial calculation 

and they need to reassess. It depends, you would have to talk 
to 

the Social Security administration, whoever your particular 
person that you work with there is 

to find out exactly why. 

And with that we are out of time for today. 

If you have additional questions please let me know. 

This is the link to our materials. 

If you want a copy of the PowerPoint or you want a record of 
attendance, 

I know that Kaitlin just posted that in the chat as well so you 
can click on that link 

and it will take you to a folder with the materials. 

We do ask that you complete this brief survey for us. 

It will pop up when you close out zoom. 

That really helps us to know whether these webinars are meeting 
your needs 

and what we can do differently in the future. 

We appreciate all of you. 

I am going to put my email in the chat 

and that way if any other questions 

come up, feel free to reach out to me. 

And I can also connect you to Renee. 

And that way we can hopefully get 

all of your questions answered. 

We so appreciate you and you spending time with us today. 

Thank you so much.