Working Poor

June 17th, 2005

Working Poor

I have heard for a while about the problem of the “working poor.” A while ago I purchased a book about it. But I witness the reality last night at church. One of our dear ladies at church asked us to pray for her. She has had a rough time over the last few decades with health problems that are now worsen because of financial problems. Both of her kidneys have failed and she now is living off of her son’s kidney. She has bad arthritis, back pain, and problems with her feet. Often she can’t get up on her own. She is practically raising her grandkids on her own, in the midst of her disability. She comes to church when her job doesn’t keep her from it. She is one of the dearest, sweetest women I have ever known.

Though she is still disabled, she is able to drag herself into work. But because she is trying to earn her own income and not live off of the government, the government penalizes her. Because she works, she no longer qualifies for Social Security disability insurance. Having recently found out that she can no longer receive this insurance that has been making it possible for her to receive medical treatment and medications while still paying rent and buying food for her family, she is going to have to make huge adjustments so she can still pay bills, have medications, and have food. The small insurance her company provides her is not nearly enough to pay for her medical needs. Half of her paycheck goes to prescriptions alone, leaving not nearly enough income to pay rent, bills, and buy food.

Social security disability will not give her insurance because she has a job. Many medical assistance programs won’t offer her assistance because she has insurance from her job, be it crappy insurance. She is poor, but she makes enough to keep her out of the low-income bracket. But with bills and medical needs, she has less income than most people on welfare.

To top it all off, she recently broke her front tooth. Her medications have weakened her teeth. The pain in her tooth is getting worse and she cannot afford her dental bills. The figure she quoted me last night for the dental bill was around $800. Our congregation is going to help out where we can, but we have been only making half of our financial budget the past few months. We are a poor church of college students, low-income families, and elderly folks.

This sister’s situation is not that unique. Our cities are filled with the working poor, people who are working but still do not receive enough income to pay their bills. This fragile group of people has taken initiative; they are anything but lazy, yet they still cannot provide for their families. After hearing of this sister’s situation, I understand why some people try their hardest to stay on welfare. If they get a job with minimal health insurance, they will be kicked out of the assistance programs that they still need. They will be better off staying on welfare than getting a job.

Many say that God helps those who help themselves. I believe that this is a heresy of the greatest degree. God has helped us all, whether we can help ourselves or not. Yet, it is all to true that we have a government that penalizes those who are trying to help themselves.

I am trying to help out this sister. I will be taking to our congregation on Sunday and next Wednesday to find out what we can do to help. I am trying to find out more about the assistance available for her here in Abilene. If you would like to donate some money to help her with her much-needed dental work, please let me know. You can contact me by email . Thanks.