I've been taking care of (or trying to) my father's finances and housing situation since he had a stroke in May. The healthcare system is so broken and shitty that they wanted to send him home despite having the cognition of a severely demented person. I'm pretty sure that my grandma's cognition was better at the end of her fight with dementia. I have been accused of neglect and stealing from my dad because I wanted the hospital to find a place for him. Caretaking services are prohibitively expensive and it'd be better for him to be in a facility.
I've been working to apply for Medicaid for him and that's a joke. I didn't receive the interview mail until late. The interviewer gave me the wrong number to reschedule and I had to do another application.
What really prompted this fucking rant is trying to get through to social security for my mom. We sent in the application in FEBRUARY with no status update. Sent in her signature forms as needed and I can't even be sure they got them. I'm trying to call so that the date doesn't pass and my mom is forced to “forefeit” her benefits.
Pension is a joke. Both my parents couldn't even pay rent with just their pensions. Years and years of contributing and saving to not even cover rent. There are no real resources for seniors unless they're damn near homeless and even then, you have to meet so many other damn criteria.
I love that I get to work for 45+ years, retire and probably will be homeless because whatever 401k, pension, whatever I invest into will not keep up with inflation. I will never make more than $70k/year and with the cost of living, there won't be much to save. Get me off this rock. Where's the applications to be abducted by the aliens?