Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
237 points by Madmallard on Jan 30, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 206 comments
I've been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated. I have high problem solving competence in general, but most modern technology stacks people are regularly using seem to be past my time. I'm willing to put some work into correcting the difference, however due to the circumstances I'm in, it would really have to quickly and effectively pay off. It can't be a "maybe useful" kind of scenario.

I've come into a situation, largely due to how awful the rent situation is in the United States, where I pretty desperately need to maximize the amount I can earn under disability (which is around $1200 a month) without losing it.

I have 8-10 years of overall experience, and regularly program as a hobby, but I have not been employed for years.

The last job I worked I primarily wrote python scripts for automating things like data entry into a CMS and other basic front-end web development features using older technology.

What can I do to actually be able to get some side income in the software space here in 2023? I've talked with a couple companies in my situation and the answers usually are along the lines of "well we can just hire a new graduate with up-to-date experience and they can work 40 hours a week for us no problem."

I'm in my early-to-mid 30s for reference. I'm not really able to get off disability as the condition is severe.

---

edit: I've already reduced expenses pretty much as much as I reasonably can do of course.

I've explored other options already as well. For things like Fiverr or being hired contract-wise on websites they seem to be races to the bottom so if I'm trying to earn $1200 a month I'm really having to work quite a lot harder and more hours than I'm really currently able to do.

I have some applications I've written that generated some interest, however if I want to make any decent money off them I would have to put an extraordinarily large amount of effort into marketing and post-release diligence which may well be past what I'm currently capable of doing.

I do tutor students as well intermittenly but it doesn't get me very much.

I've written some scripts and other little projects for people I know here and there for small amounts, but it is extremely inconsistent availability even though they trust what I deliver.

It seems like finding other leads in that regard is really my only option.




For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it.

Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who initially passed over me for someone cheaper came back a few months later and asked me to do the job after all.

So, perhaps something like that could work for you.

--

Regarding the $1,200 per month limit, I'm not sure what the rules are, but perhaps you could set up a corporation that takes on the freelancing jobs and then pays you a salary of $1,200 a month? That way you wouldn't have to turn down a job for paying too much.

Maybe have the corp owned by a trust rather than you personally?

I wouldn't want you to get in trouble and lose the disability, though, so talk to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about before doing any of this stuff.


Lawyer here, but not legal advice:

Look into a Special Needs Trust. You may be able to sock the money into the Trust without it becoming income to you, and thus jeopardizing your benefits. It’s usually used to keep assets low enough for benefits, but maybe there’s an income reducing benefit as well. Your state likely has multiple providers —- fees, if any, are typically quite reasonable


It bugs me that almost all the people I know that have gotten on disability have come from upper-class families, frequently the parents are part of the "business class" and work with lawyers on a regular basis.

Conversely I've known many people who come from lower class or middle class families that have hit hard times who are seriously mental ill (e.g. addicted to cigarettes but so thought disordered that it takes three hours to smoke a cig after waking up.) It strikes me as unfair that somebody who is "lawyered up" can find loopholes to protect their income whereas for many disabled people the process of applying for disability is like going to the moon or becoming a Navy Seal.


There are a lot of aid groups that advise on this stuff. In fact I’d never heard of special needs trust and kagi’ed for it and a lot of the results were aid groups offering help in setting them up and understanding them. It doesn’t require you to lawyer up. But it requires you to seek help. A problem with mental illness is you often are unable to seek help on your own, and if your support network is ignorant of the fact help exists you’re falling through the cracks.

How would you suggest it be ordered differently? I don’t know how we reliably help everyone who needs help if they’re unable or unwilling to seek help. “Moar social workers” isn’t a thing - even with funding, the people don’t exist to scale to the size of the need.

UBI etc seem like basic solutions but doesn’t really help them get help, just helps them not need help to some baseline.


Benefits shouldn't have this cliff where you lose them if you start doing too well.

It's an poverty/low income trap. If you're on disability/welfare you should still be incentived and rewarded for making money outside of your government payment.

It could be a constant thing like UBI or a gradual reduction like income tax brackets where more money earned is always more money in your pocket.


Negative income tax is the term for what I believe you're referring to.


Agreed


> It strikes me as unfair that somebody who is "lawyered up" can find loopholes to protect their income whereas for many disabled people the process of applying for disability is like going to the moon or becoming a Navy Seal.

This has been an inherent flaw in our legal system since the inception of our country. We do not have a right to equal representation. The right to have representation at all is barely even a thing. There has even been some mumbling about ending the right to an attorney...


We do not have a right to equal representation.

I'm not sure that's the case here. It's a matter of knowledge transfer.

Lawyers know things. People with money can afford to get knowledge from lawyers. People without money cannot afford to get knowledge from lawyers.

It's not a problem with the "system" that mathematicians know more about math than the general public, and that people who have the money can hire a mathematician to do math for them.

It's a knowledge transfer problem. How do you solve that? You can't give every person a massive book of every law when they're born. It's impractical to store, and they'd be outdated the next day. All of the laws are online for anyone to read, but who has the time?


People have struggled with "online for anyone to read" for the law.

Cornell's Legal Information Institute, for instance,

https://www.law.cornell.edu/

hasn't had the easiest time getting funding although it is produced on a shoestring and clearly delivers a huge amount of value for what goes into it.

State legislators and vendors have long tried to make people pay for access to the law, it seems in the long term courts have come to realize that there is no excuse, access to the law is not for high paid lawyers, but can and should be free because it is not expensive to provide in the electronic age and since you have to follow the law they don't need to give you the excuse that you can't afford to read it.


A huge problem with the system is that the laws are not understandable without significant study. Law school is ridiculously expensive. The average cost of a law degree right now is about $200,000. This makes legal representation insanely expensive.

A step towards equal representation would start by heavily subsidizing law school making them accessible to everyone. Also, we would need to fund the creation of more law schools. In addition we should fund public defenders an order of magnitude more than we currently do.

https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-law-school#:~:text....


As someone who became a 'jailhouse lawyer' I disagree. Once you understand the basics it's pretty understandable, and it's self documenting with our use of case law. Now, the fact that to read the cases, which are the texts of 'the law' since we use case law and you have to pay a fortune to Lexus Nexus should be illegal. If the text of the cases ARE the law of the land (which the whole case law thing demonstrates is the case) then the laws of the land should not be allowed to be locked up behind a paywall. Free access to Lexus Nexus in prison shows it is REQUIRED for fair access to the legal system (they don't give you anything they aren't constitutionally required to in prison), yet prison is the only place you get 'free' access (I mean, I paid for it via the loss of freedom, opportunity, days of my life, etc).


... do inmates get free access to LexisNexis?


Maybe? They have an offering for prisons: https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/corrections/default.page


In the Feds yes.


However, if say you wanted to offer your help to someone else, you would in fact be breaking the law. You cannot represent other people or offer legal advice without first spending 200 grand on a degree. I agree that the US should offer an equivalent alternative to Lexus Nexus. The law should never be behind a paywall.


The prisons and terms of my supervised release were required to allow me to continue helping inmates I had been helping previously (making an acception to the condition that I not associate with felons and requiring the prison to allow such correspondence). I wonder if that small crack that gives court recognized and enforced legal protection to me continuing to practice law without a degree could be used to break this gatekeeping?


You weren't representing yourself as a lawyer, with them or in court. I'm assuming that's both the potential problem and the work around.


I wrote their motions to the court, helped them file them, etc. I got a dozen people released during COVID, and those with lawyers adopted some of my work for their other cases. Sure seemed like 'lawyering' :)


>It's not a problem with the "system" that mathematicians know more about math than the general public

One of the historical high watermarks in legal history is the existence of the twelve tables, a highly condensed, shortened version of roman law which was prominently displayed in public market places and other easily accessible fora - specifically to allow non-patricians to understand and have access to the law.

Other moments in legal history have ruling classes enacting legislation in languages which the common-folk don't even speak.

We exist along a spectrum between 'everyone knows and understands' to 'nearly no one knows and understands', but don't take the difficulty of fixing the issue with the idea that it isn't a problem in the first place. It is a problem, and it's a large one.


I think there's an analogue in dealing with customer service as well. Folks who are better communicators and all that often get their interests best protected when dealing with rogue employees at companies that did some unsavory shenanigans that need to be undone by the customer. I've been delegated these customer service call tasks from my family members because they don't have the ability to ask the right questions and drill in and get answers and actions from others as fluently as I.


This is not what I think the comment was about. Of course, with the increasing complexity of society the complexity of its rules can increase as well. The idea that equal representation through equal knowledge/access to knowledge is the solution is not realistic. But society should give everyone a fair chance by providing him with access to a lawyer, especially in those challenging situations. Also, in the end, those rules are not a law of nature. They can change, or should change if the resulting system is not accessible by all. If the complexity can only be handles by specialised, expensive lawyers then it will always lead to gross inequality.


You are 100% right. In my close family we had a person that developed really oppositional schizoid type behavior (can't see the medical diagnosis due to HIPAA) and it took all of our resources to get her disability set up - luckily we had a nurse and a lawyer in the family who we could draw on to fight the paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles.

I just don't see how a person without family resources (i.e. most mentally ill patients) could ever qualify and I'm sure that's by design.


knowledge is power


If they acquired this disability before the age of 26 (soon to be 46?) they're also eligible to create an able account, which would have a much lower cost than a special needs trust.


Can you elaborate on this?


Yeah, an able account is basically a 529 for people with disabilities.

https://www.ablenrc.org/what-is-able/what-are-able-acounts/

As of right now it's only for people who acquired their disability before 26. I was born with cerebral palsy so that's how I qualified.


Len Tillem in old days on KGO 810 used to give such advices. Follow this method.


One way to legally get the end-run around SSDI is to work on open source projects and accept donations.

SSDI allows income from sources other than work, unlike SSI, which bars pretty much all income. SSDI allows you to get things like Financial Aid for school without impacting your SSDI. You can even trade stocks and gain money from stock sales and not have it impact your SSDI. Your spouse can have income and it won't impact SSDI. Most forms of income that are not strictly "work" are allowed by SSDI. SSI is the more strict of the two programs (and is more generally aimed at people who have been lifetime disabled and never worked or paid into social security).

Open source development + accepting donations seems like a sweet spot for the disabled on SSDI. You're not accepting pay for the "work" you do, thus the donation income is legally acceptable.

OP doesn't specify whether they are on SSI or SSDI, but if they had worked for years before they were disabled, its likely they were able to get SSDI.


Do you know many people who are doing this with > 1000 per month average donations?


> I'm not sure what the rules are, but perhaps you could set up a corporation that takes on the freelancing jobs and then pays you a salary of $1,200 a month?

No, that'll lose you the benefits.

https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1575.htm

"We will evaluate your work activity based on the value of your services to the business regardless of whether you receive an immediate income for your services."

SSI is deliberately set up to fuck people over. (Not in this particular loophole-closer, but in general. You get $900/month to cover food, housing, etc.; a pittance. A savings account balance (or any other countable assets) over $2,000 will lose your benefits.)


Hard thresholds on benefits just suck. They should always, always be progressively tapered, in a way that incentivises work. Otherwise you're just creating a permanent class of people without any incentive to contribute to the society that keeps them alive.

I know someone with similar problems in the UK: they are part-time, but working more hours would mean paying more in childcare and lose benefits, ending up with less money than before. It's just stupid.


Retired rich people. Whenever a system it setup to help poor people, a harsh system of cutoffs is needed to prevent retired people from qualifying for the benefit by moving money around on paper. The problem is that we have far too many systems to allow relatively well-off people to "zero" their on-paper income, even their personal assets, during retirement. Entire industries exist to facilitate such trickery (see every other TV commercial on CNN/MSNBC/FOX).


Starving the poor to prevent feeding the rich seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.


Or rather like cutting off someone else's nose to spite people it won't matter much to.

The efforts US politicians go through to make sure that some of the people who have paid a disproportionately large amount of taxes don't get a fraction of them back when they don't need it have been valiant. Considering that you could simply tax them enough to create a universal benefit, effectively refunding part of their own taxes and redistributing the rest, I'd suggest that starving the poor is a goal rather than a side-effect.

We can't give people free college, what if people who could afford college go?


This is America. Don't catch you slippin up.


On the one hand yes. But letting your system be abused by those that have no need for it is never a good use of funds.


That's actually not always true; it depends on the rate of fraud, the amount earned, how widespread it is, and the amount of damage you do to good-faith applicants by making the process harder.

For example, Florida required drug testing to receive welfare; that program cost more than it saved taxpayers in benefits. https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-mone...


>But letting your system be abused by those that have no need for it is never a good use of funds.

And yet, we have rich people using fraud to get government funds that they have absolutely no need for while the poor get exploited and starve.

The abuse is going on A N Y W A Y; it's just that people get more indignant when one of the "poors" occasionally get that extra soda out of the machine.


If we know what they are so much so that they advertise these services on cable news channels, you'd think the government would be able to make carve outs for these things as they come up no?


I once found German guy on github and wanted to hire him to perform some domain specific programming. He refused with the same argument: will loose the benefits.


>SSI is deliberately set up to fuck people over.

It's a chicken and egg problem because it's guaranteed income. There has to be something where they can do partial work and still be on disability. This example of rising rent means for his area that amount is not enough or he will simply have to move which sucks


Could a group of SSI freelancers set up a co-op to handle that month-to-month averaging?


I'm not sure on this one; I suspect one of the risks would be the SSA deeming the co-op itself to have a valuation and thus a participant's ownership in it count as an asset with enough value to break the $2k limit.


If you mean averaging the money over time, that doesn't seem like it would work since it doesn't affect "the value of your services". I assume it's an abstract value, along the lines of

However, another thing a co-op could do is allocate work among members who do the same kind of work while respecting limits on how much work each member is capable of doing. I assume the rule's purpose is roughly, "Your benefit is predicated on you being incapable of working enough to support yourself, so if you prove otherwise, we can't give you the benefit." Limiting how much each person works seems compatible with that.

But I'd guess the work would need to be allocated based on members' actual capability, not the monthly dollar limit. If someone's work adds up to just barely under the dollar limit consistently month after month, it strongly suggests they're capable of more. Even more so if lots of co-op members have that pattern.

Such a co-op could serve a legitimate purpose because people who can only do limited part-time work may not have much opportunity. Many employers want someone who is full time. Also, some disabilities may make it where someone can only work sporadically. So the co-op could enable someone who is capable of (say) 10 hours/week to do that instead of 0 hours/week.


Brilliant idea. Not only could they distribute the work, but they could also lobby for any needed legal changes.


That (among other thigns) is what business do though. I haven't directly contributed to the bottom line for $WORK for over a month, but as soon as I finish my current project it'll have a significant positive impact. They paid me a steady salary regardless. So long as OP keeps their average contribution under $1,200/mo won't they be fine?


> So long as OP keeps their average contribution under $1,200/mo won't they be fine?

No. If their business brings in $5k/month, that's what the SSA will consider their income. Doesn't matter if it's just accumulating in the business's bank accounts; it's OP's income. They've seen people try this trick; it's why the provision exists.


But if their business brings in $5k for one contract done one month and then has no work for 4 months to bring the average under $1,200, is that not above board with such a ruling? Test 3 in that legal document references that their income will be evaluated relative to what salary they might receive for such work, and I wouldn't think it would be reasonable for the business to be expected to pay more than the average value of their output.


It doesn't average.

https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/416/416-0420.htm

> We generally use the amount of your countable income in the second month prior to the current month to determine how much your benefit amount will be for the current month.

Earning $5k in a particular month would mean zero benefit in a subsequent month, and keeping that $5k sitting in their account to tide themselves over would put them over the $2k limit on assets, making them ineligible for SSI.


Well that's a moldy bollocks sandwich of a law isn't it :/ Thanks for the clarification.


I wonder if a 3rd party intermediary entity could be setup to collect the funds from the customer and pay out just the right amount spread over time.


This is correct.


If the 5k is better than the "normal" month with benefit, it is still better to earn the 5k that month, assuming the benefit is immediately restored on the subsequent months with low income.


> It takes up to a month to approve your request for reinstatement. However, this does not mean that your benefits have been completely restored. While you are receiving temporary benefits, the Social Security office is determining your eligibility to completely reinstate your benefits after the six months of temporary benefits. The Social Security office analyzes your medical condition and updates your medical information. If they decide that you are eligible to continue receiving SSI benefits, your temporary benefits become regular SSI benefits. If you are not eligible to receive benefits, your temporary benefits end.

> The Social Security office may approve your request for reinstatement. If your request is approved, your temporary benefits start the month following the month in which you made your request. Temporary benefits can last up to six months.

So: it’s not instant. It’s not immediate. And it risks losing the benefits altogether if they mistake a one-time contract for something he could sustain indefinitely.


Yeah, sorry I didn't read that more carefully. Kind of hard to look at something so broken and not be completely discouraged. Sounds like yet another good argument for basic income policies.


Totally agree, it seems like a messed up system that would be solved by something like that.


Tax law is written by the rich for the rich. Benefits laws is written by the rich for the poor.


Sometimes benefits law is also written by the rich for the rich. Vanishingly few non-rich can come anywhere near maxing out tax-advantaged retirement accounts, even if they have the spare cash to do it (too much of the limit has to come from your employer), meanwhile the rich can easily structure their income to max it out (and max out their spouse's, and their kids', et c.). The most-effective use of health savings accounts is also as a stealth tax-advantaged retirement account for the rich (the trick is you put money in, pay any actual medical expenses with ordinary taxed money outside the account, then at retirement the HSA money that would have gone to those bills, but didn't, and has been invested and growing all this time, can come out tax-free as long as you—or your accountant—kept the receipts)


Ah. Well nevermind that idea, then.

I suppose the OP will just have to stick to smaller jobs.


I tried for months to find a job in freelance site. I ended up doing someone's home work for symbolic price ($50 or something like that), got 5 stars and that's about it. Any work with reasonable pay (few thousands of dollars for few weeks) was overflooded with offers (like 200+ offers). I wrote my offer, tried to customize it, few times I even made some small demo to show off my interest but to no success. In the end I gave up.

So my opinion: if you desperately need some money, freelancing websites are not a good option. It's more about luck and determination. I guess if I would kept applying, with time I'd find more projects, more reputation and so on, but that's not quick money.

Might be my country (KZ). I would expect people from US or EU having better implicit reputation. Also it was around 10 years ago, may be things changed.


I'd encourage you to still apply for anything that's fresh, regardless of how many applicants are there. I've been in a hiring position from these sites and 99% of the proposals are fake/canned. The thing is you need to have demonstrable track record to get going on these sites. I'd say it takes about 5-10 of those "small and crappy" jobs so people can see you're for real and serious.


That's a fair point. I am in the US, and I'm sure that was part of what helped me get the jobs that I did get. Most of my clients were from the US, a couple were even from the same city I was in.

It sounds like the OP is also in the US, so they will have that same advantage.


Steps I'm seeing:

1. Find a lawyer 2. Consider a corporation 3. Find an external entity (friend, family, form a trust) to run business

Run all plans through lawyer and revive their agreement in writing


> Run all plans through lawyer

I don't think you appreciate how tight the budget of a disabled person on SSI is.


Agreed. But, I will say that I have benefited from pro-bono work in the past, more than once actually; some--many--lawyers feel they have an obligation on that end. Once, at least, I was helped out at https://www.freeadvice.com/, I think when I represented myself against a creditor that had seized my student aid.


They'll require help (Friends/family/someone). However I'm MUCH more worried about them losing SSI because "someone on the internet said this was OK". Granted I have no idea how much a lawyer costs (and last time I used one it came in <$300).


I would be too, and going forward without legal advice is really fool-hardy. The trick imo would be finding an affordable lawyer who is also familiar with disability law.


Have you considered technical writing? I've talked to a number of folks who are in a similar position, and writing (as opposed to generalist development) has a number of advantages:

- It rewards experience though, except for niche-specific writing, does not require understanding of specific frameworks or programming languages - It is often 'important-but-not-urgent' work, so intermittent availability is less of a deal-breaker - Clear writing is very much an orthogonal skill from programming aptitude writ large, and you don't need to compete with new grads


This is solid advice. In large, technical companies you'd be surprised at the number of technical writers that aren't actually technical. Having someone that acts as a source writer, rather than as an editor for developers that are quickly rushing past the documentation requirements is a game-changer. The best technical writers I've worked with were always folks who understood programming and could write the docs from experience.

I also find most technical documentation teams to be a lot more chill and flexible. Most of them have excellent team-minded work styles.

How to get started in this field? You can't throw a stone without hitting an OSS project that wouldn't want help with its docs. It's a great way to build up a network and some Github activity.


Third this. One of the companies I develop for hired a technical writer to translate large pieces of our code into user-friendly manuals. She isn't a coder but she's a good writer and has a knack for finding problems and asking questions from the user's perspective. Most importantly, she's intellectually curious. She sort of fell into the position by being a regular employee who raised a lot of good questions about the old software as it existed. She's paid well by the client, picks her own hours and problems, has a hand in suggesting new features, sends me lists of questions and I answer as I do... in extreme detail and with tons of edge cases. She then just keeps testing things out and distills my technical babble down to the manuals that are used to train the managers.


On that note, LWN are always looking for article authors:

https://lwn.net/op/AuthorGuide.lwn


Interesting. Do you have a feel for the market for this as a contract-job or side-gig?


There are contract jobs: https://whopaystechnicalwriters.com

But there are also permanent type jobs. Some companies are looking for technical writers. Find them at "Who is Hiring" threads.


> I've been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated.

I always find this such a weird claim. Sure, lots has happened in the past 5 years, but there's still tons of software out there that's older than 5 years, most major programming languages are decades old, and anything new can be learned.

If you want to be able to make money quickly, it's far more interesting to look at what you can do, than worry about what you might not yet know. Python is still around and still as relevant as ever.

> I'm in my early-to-mid 30s for reference. I'm not really able to get off disability as the condition is severe.

My personal opinion is that if your condition is that severe, you shouldn't have to work at all, but of course that's of no help to you right now.


I wouldn’t describe it as weird because people who struggle with a disability can lose their confidence over time in things unrelated to their disability, but I certainly agree with your point: if somebody could write code 5 years ago, they can do it today. Modern technology is just old technology with some different bells and whistles, the principles are all the same, and as has always been the case, most code that professionals are writing is very simple.

Technology is 90% confidence, and very little skill. The biggest challenge for the OP is convincing himself that he isn’t damaged goods who needs charity, he’s a competent developer with some restrictions on his availability so he’s available for part-time work.


I once knew a guy who was severely spastic, bound to a motorised wheelchair, could barely move or talk, but inside his head he was really smart and good with computers. Despite his complete disability, he was able to land a programming job with a company willing to accommodate for his disability, and he did very good work there.

Then the department where he worked was disbanded and everybody was laid off. All his coworkers got unemployment benefits, but he couldn't, because he was disabled. So he had to get disability instead. So he applied, and was told that this wasn't a new disability, so he had to apply for something for inborn disabilities, which was a slightly different agency. So he did, and was told that that was only for people who have never been able to work, and since he had had a job, it didn't apply to him.

Personally I think everybody who manages to work and make money despite their disability, should just be able to keep everything without losing their disability pay. We should be rewarding them, but instead we're punishing them.


I'm not sure if you or your friend are in the US.

Here we have SSI (for people so disabled they were never able to work) and SSDI for people who could work and became disabled.

I have cerebral palsy and I used to be on SSI. I managed to get a CS degree and get off disability, but in doing so I 'crossed the rubicon' and 'burned the ships' so to speak, on ever going back on disability. It was scary for sure, but it ultimately turned out well. The only way I can imagine being considered 'fully disabled' again is if, god forbid, I was struck with some sort of serious cognitive impairment. I suspect the same holds for your friend.


> I'm not sure if you or your friend are in the US.

We're not. We're in Netherland, but it sounds like the US system is not all that dissimilar from the Dutch one.

Personally I don't think there should be a Rubicon; if you're severely disabled and you still manage to work, I'd like to see that rewarded rather than punished. Keep the disability pay and have something extra. The fact that you then contribute to the tax base is enough for me. There's no need to create extra pitfalls for disabled people.


Yeah, losing disability was scary. When my friends were unemployed in '08, they could turn to trades and other physical work. I didn't have that option. If I failed, I was homeless.

That was pretty much the reason why I kept living like a poor grad student for the next decade until I didn't need to work to survive.


Cool experience. I always assumed my much less serious problems were too little to get any disability. I worked full time since high school but was not allowed to graduate due to anxiety. I stopped having money by 21 and things lasted that way for over a decade. The only work I did was for a few months.

I would have been screwed and homeless without my parents house for a decade. Luckily that’s not the case any more. I’m doing a tech interview bootcamp hoping to get a solid job and keep it. Don’t have CS degree nor experience for interviews but I would get a basic programing job if I can’t finish the bootcamp. I don’t know what the problem is but whatever it is, it’s crazy.


The fundamental problem is that the government is using earnings as the metric for evaluating disability. That might work ok with manual labor, but not so great with non-manual labor jobs.

As others have pointed out, there needs to at least be tapered thresholds with a significant deadband (in dollars and time) so someone can get some career inertia before being cast out of the system. Beyond that, we should be able to provide some help even after someone starts earning. Living and working with a disability is damned expensive, not to mention the horrendous stress of worrying about whether one can meet expectations at work.


[ActivistNote] As the inflation continues to raise prices, is it vital to put political pressure on ensuring that the state increases SS payments accordingly. [/ActivistNote]

You have the right to your opinion but it pretty close to the mythical "Let them eat cake"

In his situation he has nearly no control over how much he will get paid. You take what the government gets and that is it.

A nice thing when you are working is that you can sort of hope for a bonus, a raise, promotion etc. You have some control, yet that influence good in some jobs and next to none in other jobs.

On SS you cant really hope for a bonus. and asking for a raise aint happening either.


> You have the right to your opinion but it pretty close to the mythical "Let them eat cake"

I suspect you meant to respond to someone else or you severely misunderstand me, because my opinion is the exact opposite of that. Of course these payments (and many others, including minimum wage) should be automatically corrected for inflation, but that's apparently not happening, and as I pointed out, not of much help to him right now.


> I always find this such a weird claim. Sure, lots has happened in the past 5 years, but there's still tons

It depends a lot on what you are working on.

If you work on a big legacy system, you can probably walk in after 5 years and pick it up. Same C on an established embedded platform. And certainly, Cobol on a mainframe. Perl you are good as well

It seems like if you writing front - end code shit is changing on a monthly basis , framework come, disappear, new hotness, cargo culting. Or at least I think that is what a lot of the cursing I have heard from people who do it.

Myself i have never down that road but it seems chaotic.

I have worked a lot with C#. It has changed so much over 5 or 7 years that if you are all up on the latest changes you can write code that is not easy to read for someone a while back. (Here I am talking language changes) Of course the .Net framework has changed a lot, .core now it.

You can pick it up but it would take work.

Really it depends on what, where and how.


> It seems like if you writing front - end code shit is changing on a monthly basis , framework come, disappear, new hotness, cargo culting.

We're taking about from 2018 until now. React was already 5 years old back then. If one was a productive frontend dev in any of the popular stacks of 2018, what exactly do you think they would be missing in order to be productive today?


There are certain industries (looking at your finance), that often DON'T adopt the newest technologies on purpose. In fact, some of them have essentially "5 year plans" where they only update their stack every X years. (I put X as even in the same org the values for X may range from 1 to 10).

People familiar with older techs AND have the ability to pick up new things are very valuable.

If you are curious how to find things like this:

- look for talks by hedge funds on the tech they use

- if you see one in which your are knowledgeable, look up some of the recruiters for that firm on LinkedIn and reach out to them pointing out your expertise (bonus points for looking for a connection in common)

- go from there


It seems that you write well. Perhaps you could do technology writing?

Another idea: try to find a grant for an Open Source project to document it. For a large project like Rust find something not well documented.

In my experience and of that of my friends -- we are Deaf by the way -- about nine of ten projects won't give sustenance. It's like startups, you need to try again and again. Either you will strike gold or you will have several horses to bet on.

Finally consider leaving the country. The US is good for people who are well off and not so good for the rest. With some luck you could work as a digital nomad.


From all the comments thus far posted here, I think you'd be best off finding work "under the table", cash only. Yes, this would be defrauding the SSDI system, in the technical sense. But given the significant rise in damned near everything, SSDI is grossly unacceptable in its benefits and requirements.

(I mean, this isn't a case of a Scrooge McDuck collecting piles of money into the money bin. You've got both feet square in the poverty class, with SSDI serving as the very poverty trap.)

SSDI will remove you from their roles if you make "too much".

You'll be forced to a different disability agency that will do everything in its power to not cover you.

If a workplace does significantly accommodate, that will forever be used to prove that you're not disabled; just lazy.

This country's (USA) politicians do not care about you.


One of the best comments here.


I’ve employed people in a similar position to yours at Instapainting.com. Willing to train and pay you while you train, and also dole part time work as you see fit for software engineering services.

Please email me chris@instapainting.com


Your business doesn’t seem very sustainable, photorealistic paintings for less than minimum wage won’t lead to long term workers.


It's hard to take Fiver seriously.

For example a quick search for 'Ruby Rails' and one of the top service providers lists a premium service of 'full stack development app' delivered in 3 days, and including a 15 minute consultation, a project plan, and audit, for ... $20.


In my experience, it's a loss leader designed to bleed you dry with never-ending "bug fixes" you have to pay for.

1. Put the cheapest junior they have to install and configure their default platform for you and present it.

2. You see progress, and decide spending another $20 will get you over the finish line.

And people remain stuck on #2 forever. The more they spend, the more the sunk costs convince them to keep paying.


As long as each $20 you put in, you get $20 worth of work, it sort of makes sense... not a huge fan of it for software development or the way is is marketed as such, though.


Ya fiverr tends to be more of $20 for the initial meeting, followed by a custom quote for $500 for the project.

Usually that $20 is just to get you in the door (which is why it's hilariously low), very very rarely have I experienced that being the actual cost.


The $20 quote is ofc absurd, but Fiverr can never work for professionals in rich countries.


If they have a stack set up, and just need to copy/paste 90% of it, I can see cranking out even 1 per day. And $20/day is above median wage for India, and might support a student really nicely.

I would absolutely trust someone to copy/paste a stack for me, a total idiot when it comes to the client-facing 50% of the stack, as long as they plug into my APIs.


Wait until Elon finds out...


Funny - I was heavily upvoted. Then heavily downvoted again to 1 point. Not that I mind, but people get very emotional about Elon even here on HN.


Hey, sorry to hear about your situation. I'm in a similar boat — very low and variable ability to work for a couple years.

I haven't seen this suggestion elsewhere in the thread and it's worked ok for me so I'll mention it. I started a small SaaS.

It was initially a decent chunk of work (as you indicated in the section about monetizing applications you've written), but now provides consistent income that's not tied to my time or, critically, my energy levels. And even the initial push wasn't that bad since I spread out a lot of the work over time to match my abilities. My physical difficulties were actually kind of a blessing in a way because it forced me to do things that were absolutely critical and cut out everything else.

Needless to say, making a SaaS is an art and a risky one. It requires a good eye for applications that will make money, practice validating ideas and solutions, ways of acquiring new users, ongoing customer support and feature development, etc. One way you might de-risk a SaaS is by doing contract work for companies that give you insights into problems they're having and help you build solutions while still getting paid until you can spin out an app.

I actually think browser extensions are also an underappreciated way to get started indie hacking but I'm biased: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-browser-extensions-are...

Anyway, stay positive, friend! It's hard to be in our position without an ongoing practice of self-compassion and positivity.


You don't say what your disability is (or how it impacts your ability to work), so it's hard to be specific. But my general advice would be just to talk to more companies. Not every company will be open to this, but some will and you just need to find those companies. Get in contact with companies that are hiring for roles that require the kind of skills you have even if the working arrangements they're advertising aren't what you'd want.


One thing to add: You (OP) might make enough money with full-time (or part-time) work that it's "worth it" to lose your disability benefits.

(Granted, it's worth finding out how easy/hard it is to reactive them.)


This. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people with disabilities who fall through the cracks because they’re able to work, just not to the artificial availability (and suffering) standard required by the modern labor market. There’s a difference between being able to do useful work and being able to survive the nightmare of a modern-day corporate job where the work demands themselves are low but the emotional labor is enough to take down even people without disabilities, given enough time.

And SSDI is really badly set up, as other posters have noted.


It really is. I’m able to work with ADA accommodations, but finding a job I can manage is difficult.

It takes me 3~6 months for me to find a job each time I’m out of work.

Finding a specialist to manage the medical side of my disability is similar.

Through fortunate circumstances (and inheritance), I have successful career and enough energy left over to have some kind of life.

If I lived in Europe, the amount of sick and vacation time would allow me to actually heal between episodes. I live in the US, so I’m in a constant state of near burn-out.


> It takes me 3~6 months for me to find a job each time I’m out of work.

It takes me 3-6 months and I'm not disabled.

That's pretty much the norm in tech, unless you fit into the very small group of people who get lucky and find a job overnight.


I would recommend using your Python skills to write scripts that perform analytics tasks using JIRA Cloud REST API data. Every tech company I have worked in needed some kind of custom reports regarding development performance, time reporting, financial reporting, etc.... and there often weren't suitable plugins for just that task, and the reports themselves are highly valuable either for management purposes or compliance reasons, so they will pay you well. I have written several programs myself to do these tasks (during work hours), and it is quite satisfying to figure out how to get around the API constraints. Could be a nice little line of consulting and development work for you.


Where would you find clients for this? Also is there a youtube video that shows you how to extract this information from the API data?


Great, niche, high paying advice here.


$1200/m as a decent software engineer should be really doable, whether writing software directly or not. It just might take some work to get creative and figure out where the right niches are.

I think you really want to explore more non-traditional routes, since $1200 is not much for a full time job, and probably too low end for traditional consulting as well.

For instance:

* I would get on all the expert networks (GLG, Guidepoint, Alphasights, Deepbench, etc) and get really good there. These can be a bit of overhead, but it only takes a few gigs per month to get close to $1200/month. Charge $100-$300/call. reddit.com/r/expertneworks will give you more detail

* Do you know friends/ppl in your network who work at startups or are indie hackers/solo software shops? If you're still a solid engineer, but you have a cost cap, you could be really useful to some startups who need flexible help thats not 40 hrs/week. You can also offer to be a generalist doing software, documentation, other stuff as well since you're not trying to optimize salary. A jack of all trades who can pitch in on software could be very useful for the right startup.

* Some others have suggested it too, but I'd explore the Fiverrs/Upworks and see if you can find an optimal niche where you're working, say, 10-15 hours/month and hitting that $1200. I think it's doable if you figure out what works well on those networks.

I've written a bit more about ways to get part-time work here (https://blog.parttimetech.io/p/work-part-time-as-a-software-...), hopefully some of the tips there and resources can be helpful. I've had friends with disabilities leverage part-time to be able to stay in the workforce, hope you can as well.


Little typo in your first bullet: should be reddit.com/r/expertnetworks/


Man small and medium sized local businesses need website help and marketing help. Try posting ads on craigslist and facebook. I used to do this 10-15 years ago and had some small success, though it wasn't something I tried to do full time.

You can work as much or as little as you want. People pay way too much for websites, so there's a long tail of customers that you can actually save money and do a decent job for, you just have to seek them out. Many small businesses prefer to work for someone local as well.

Many small businesses are happy to pay $X/month to their web master to keep the site alive as well, since they know nothing about computers. Many web agencies charge over $100/month to do essentially nothing, and charge for change fees.

If you have a very trusted friend or family member to structure a corporation for you, then you can earn a modest 'wage' and they uh, aren't very good at not leaving envelopes full of cash at your place. That part's obviously up to you, probably not legal, but everyone breaks the speed limit now and then.


In early 40's with outdated skills, I am in the same boat except a physical disability. While development only roles have gone out of reach now, I have been able to find QA, documentation, support, generalist roles at a non-profit, academia, and an early stage startup in that order. Reached advanced interview stages with employers looking for outdated skills (Perl scripting) or in-office positions, so you might want to explore similar. LinkedIn, Fiverr never worked for me. My resume generated a lot more interest via HN's monthly threads. Good luck!


> outdated skills

Wordpress powers like 40% of the web, unless you really, really, really hate PHP, your skills aren't outdated. It's probably tough to connect to the right people but there are endless companies and individuals out there that need help with their sites that run on WP.

Just as a reminder that there's the Modern-Software-Development Paradise where you need to keep learning new technology and everything is futuristic and shiny, and then there's the Wordpress-Running-On-Php5.6 Real World which is gigantic but few people blog about because it's not fancy and it smells bad sometimes.


Please contact me chris@instapainting.com (I also offered OP) if still looking for a job.


Thanks! I have one for the time being and I wish you good luck with your work. Best


You might want to expand your focus - if you can't promise to commit to a long-term project due to your health concerns, try talking to local temp services. It won't be tech work, but it will be work and a paycheck. With low expectations of continued work. Low pay, too, but it sounds like you only want some money, not an amount so large to kick you out of your programs.

I've also gotten tech gigs from temp gigs - "Hey, I know I'm just a temp, but I also do tech work and noticed some things I could automate for you, if you'd like some help."


Depending on the disability there may be organizations that can help. For example, if you're blind or low vision the APH, ACB and NFB (in the states) have great training and placement programs that can potentially match you to employers.

There's also options to reposition yourself. For example, instead of development, look for QA analyst roles. This particular shift won't pay as high, but it might be a good fit for what you need and possibly be easier to land in a shorter time frame


I'm a software developer with cerebral palsy. I hope you don't take this question the wrong way, but what sort of condition disables you from working as a software developer? I only ask because I worked very hard to get into this career imagining that it would be almost impossible to be disabled enough that I could not write code without some sort of cognitive impairment. Your post suggests I'm missing a risk factor I haven't accounted for?


Possible factors: Too many doctor's appointments. Severe fatigue. Progressive illness with increasing disability. Issues typing.

Personally, I have hEDS, nTOS and thoracic myelopathy. I was barely able to type for months. There's dictation software, but the learning curve is substantial, everything becomes slow and error-prone, and you have to spend much of your concentration on dictation itself. That and fatigue kept me from working for six months while I rehabbed and adapted.


I can give my story. I’ll try to be succinct. I got my problems while rich at 17. I was kicked out of high school and then community college so that hurt. I was told I had no issues by free clinic people. By 23 I was broke and had not paid any taxes. That excluded me from some help. My anxiety took care of the rest — I had nothing. I did nothing. I sat around in the bubble that is my parent’s upper middle class house worried about everything. I lived below the poverty line until last year. Many years I made nothing.

I believe I was disabled and am still disabled. I found left wing politics and felt more at home. They provided answers to why my life had been so bad. Same politics convinced me I have to start working soon. There’s no excuse. So I began a tech interview bootcamp to break into the industry. I’ve programmed for for years (freelance a bit, partial SaaS attempts, community projects, half done portfolio projects). I am sure I will be fine from here on out.

I don’t think you’re missing anything. I don’t know about cerebral palsy but I’m sure you will always have work. Good job succeeding at life even with cerebral palsy!


This is none of our business.


I've found myself doing a bit of side work for small non-profits, and they tend to use older CMSs for their sites. They also tend to not have anyone on staff who fully manages the website - it usually falls under whoever is in charge of marketing or development (in the non-profit sense). One non-profit in particular reached out to have me on a monthly retainer to just pop in to their WordPress site to make sure things are updated and there are no security issues. They also ask me to do some content updates if they're overwhelmed and not sure of the best way to do it. Time wise, I'll spend maybe 15-20 minutes a month going through their checklist of ToDos, and they send a small but consistent check each month.

Maybe you could use your experience in CMS automation and reach out to a few smaller non-profits/businesses to see if you might be able to get a similar situation going? It could be a win-win; you can pull a consistent amount every month, and it's a huge relief to the marketing coordinator to not have to deal with administration they're not comfortable with.


Have you put out your resume on indeed.com, LinkedIn, etc, listing yourself as part time? Getting noticed by recruiters can be a way to get things done. Have you considered going back to school online? Being in school can help with Section 8 housing in the US, as can a disability. It also helps with lots of other public help. Also, you might scour for jobs that require a security clearance that are part time, as the government views disability far, far different than the private sector. Long term, government jobs, even part time, might be your answer. Even companies that have government contracts hire many more disabled folks than others. Actually, I know people who's job it is/has been to help disabled folks get jobs, even part time. Google Vocational Rehab for your area. There's probably a program near you. Sorry to not answer your questions the way you were probably looking, but I'm sharing what I do know of all this. I can probably help if you care to send more specifics.


Well, currently I am receiving both private and government disability. As soon as I start working part-time, I will assuredly lose private disability. But the nature of my condition is that it periodically and unpredictably gets much worse to the point where I can't work at all for an extended period of time. So when that happens, and I have already lost the private disability, I won't be able to get it back. But they currently pay for half of all of what I receive, so that's not an acceptable risk I can take.


I feel for you, I'm a bit younger then you and in a similar situation.

Been offered several jobs at tech startups for marketing positions that I had to turn down besides being offered the world and back. Can't risk losing the medicaid/medicare combo.

Have you looked into an efficiency apartment or talking to some old people who are landlords? They'll sometimes have places they'd rather stick a "low maintenance/guaranteed payment" tenant.

I regularly notice my landlord just "Forgetting" to update the cost per month on my rent portal but my lease stating a different amount.

One thing you can do is work for people in the crypto world, building Rust/Solidity games for others can be profitable AND most importantly its paid out in crypto.

Just don't try withdrawing said crypto in your name cough. -- Beyond working in the crypto world/getting paid in crypto I can't see a way out of this hellish hole for either of us.


It's horrible feeling like the world has passed you by, perhaps even more so when it's forced on you by external factors rather than choices you've made.

That being said, I wonder if you should challenge your assumption that it's out of date. I'm definitely clueless on whatever the latest JavaScript library is and whatever's going in machine learning. But my knowledge of foundational data structures, algorithms, and software development practices often makes me more valuable than somebody who is more "up to date". It feels horrible when someone uses an acronym I don't know, but it doesn't actually have much impact.

Then again, perhaps you're right and it really is causing you problems - it's hard to give specific advice on social media because the async nature prevents good Q&A. Could you find someone that will coach you on it?


I don't have experience with external factors, but I can assure you that the feeling of failure etc when it's down to your own choices, seems much more acute than if you had a valid excuse.


Both are painful. When I'm struggling, is it better to know that I justly deserve it as a consequence of my own choices, or that fate has capriciously inflicted those struggles on me? Whichever situation I find myself in, I'd rather be in the other one.


I feel for you. Besides the obvious fact that you have a disability it also seems like overall society has shunned you . I have an acquaintance in a similar situation who can actually still code and has been out of the market for around 20 years. Nobody wants to employ him.

For those who are worried about a similar fate happening to them ( yes, I'm worried). I'd say that you have to form long term alliances with conscientious long term thinking people to partially alleviate situations like this.

p.s: I'm fully aware that insurance can take into account certain obviously visible disabilities (like a last a lost limb), but there are others where insurance will not be useful, for example chronic fatigue syndrome.


I think if I wasn't so sick that it's probable I could make a living off my own software creations.


I presume you are indicating a business. It's not easy to pull of a software business or even contract if you have been out of touch for say 5 years. A business/contract is difficult for even healthy people if they are out of touch.


Yeah I just mean I've already had leads with multiple things like mobile game ads (SIPS, MIPS, SIP generator), NFT mint sniping (Solana), and videogame bots that I've made when desperate for money while disabled. Just seems like if I was able to put 40 hours a week on these things I'd easily be making enough to survive. But yeah of course I could be wrong about how difficult it is.


I think, the obvious thing to do in such a situation if you're fairly confident,( I know you said you weren't) is to engage another underemployed coder and then share the profits. I see that you have put your contact information on your profile, hopefully someone will contact you.

By the way, speaking about this subject, I'm reminded about the War Apms : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Amps


I might have something for you. I'm helping out a small company that has web dashboards which sometimes need to be updated. The stack is Python/Flask running on AWS Beanstalk. Frontend is vanilla HTML with JS/CSS. There's currently quite some work to improve the performance of queries by writing things as JSON to S3. "Queries" means Python Pandas. All in all it is a simple stack. The complexity is in the detailed pandas code, but there's a data scientist who works on that. It is a US company. Obviously I'm not the founder so I can't guarantee anything, but if you're interested: My profile contains my contact information.


2018 is not that long ago. I know things develop fast in technology but doesn't mean every single company hiring is keeping up. I would look into agency work and look for agencies that deal with boring enterprise clients. For instance, I used to work for an agency that strictly served pharmaceutical clients. I did full-stack but there were co-workers that only handled front-end, and I'm not talking about modern front-ends using React/Vue/etc, I'm talking about people writing just HTML and CSS, no build steps. These sites ranged from the simplest front-ends ("brochure websites") with simple forms to capture data, to the most basic CRUD app. This is not sexy work but it pays well and can be easy for the more experienced devs. I eventually left because I needed to learn more and do harder things, but if you just need to make money it's not a bad place to work.

Some places to start, there are few top mega companies (known as "the big four") that own most of the advertising companies in this space. Go to their sites and see which of their companies work in the "Health" space and then go to their individual sites and check out their posted jobs

1. IPG (Interpublic Group), look at the multiple "Health" options in the "Capabilities" dropdown on this page: https://www.interpublic.com/our-companies/

2. Publicis Groupe - https://www.publicisgroupe.com/en/services/services-publicis...

3. WPP plc - look into the companies mentioned on this page: https://www.wpp.com/featured/work/list?topic=Healthcare%20an...

4. Omnicom Group - check out https://www.omnicomgroup.com/newsroom/agency/bbdo/


Here are some tangible options, depending on whether your disability status allows them:

* Donating plasma: up to $900/month in my city, note that they may be able to work around medication(s), but it might be considered taxable income: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/dis...

* Bacon (no affiliation): usually temp and handyman work, but it's worth signing up to see if they offer clerical/remote work as part of an anti-discrimination effort for the disabled: https://www.baconwork.com

* Support others in your situation: your technical skills are in high demand at agencies that advocate for the disabled, perhaps you could contact someone at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employm...

I would add that I struggled for many of the last 20 years under a scarcity mindset. But reconnecting as part of a community really helped me see that we all have equal dignity and a desire to be of service. For me, mustering the faith to try new things for a couple of weeks, while being mindful about setting boundaries and having fallback options, really helped get me back to healthy and sustainable work.


I am not in the United States so I am not the right person to answer your question.

It might be helpful to say how many hours you can work per week, and how much you want to be paid per hour.


COBOL. Spend a couple of months getting back into the coding mindset by digging into COBOL, then find a local company that needs help maintaining old COBOL programs. I've gotten calls from local colleges asking me if: a) I want to teach COBOL courses as adjunct (nope) or b) if I'd have any interest in helping to maintain for them or other area employers (not yet but maybe someday).


There is a lot of work connecting various platforms via API. Marketing agencies in particular need this service.

You could look at the big CRM platforms like Salesforce which require only a modified version of Java called Apex to customize. I find there are a dearth of good programmers working in the platform.

EDIT: Both of these options allow you to work remotely.


Apex is based on Java, not on JavaScript.


Corrected, thank you. Could not remember.


I don't know where you'd find it, but seems like one possibility would be match up one of those people who wants to bootstrap a startup with very little money. The kind that would normally use some overseas gig worker site, or used to post on Craigslist, but you'd probably be a better bet for them.

Or maybe a business has an existing in-house Python application they need maintained, including frequent changes made on short notice, and they don't want to hire someone at several times the cost and try to retain them. They have to find a trustworthy contractor for a long-term relationship, and you might look like that.

You could also do two of these kinds of engagements at once (to lower the cost even more, avoid any concern about looking like a de facto employee, add recent stuff to your resume faster, and not have all your eggs in the same basket).


I'm not certain about the accounting details in the USA, but at least in Canada starting a company is a fantastic way to control your income to keep you subthreshold (you pay yourself at the threshold, and defer excess income to future years)

Perhaps someone more aware of US Law could confirm/correct this line of thinking.


The semi-tech-savvy small business people I encounter tend to manage CMS, WordPress, etc, sites for less tech savvy small businesses as a kind of support contract.

I think it has similar downsides as consulting except that it can provide a very fixed income while the amount of work to do varies instead of having income swings.


Depending on your disability, you might already be qualified to be an expert consultant on software development to accommodate users with your disability. If not, that's fine too, and you can quickly become knowledgeable in disability consulting for web applications (how to structure html/css so that pages can be read by screen readers). There is a lot of work in this field and when you're really good, you can make that $1200 in one day.

If a particular job requires several days of work, you could ask the client if you can bill them $1200 at a time over several months.


It's easy for me and I don't know your situation to say but try not to be so fixated on the $1200/mo. Seems to be that a solid job with Python skills could make the $1200 look small very quickly.


I think the risk here is that the nature of the disability is that they might suddenly be unable to continue working or keep up a reasonable pace of work. Many conditions are cyclical - meaning that you could be productive for a period of time, and then suddenly disabled again.

It might be very difficult to get back on disability benefits after they go above that limit.

This is a common trap with many disability benefit programmes worldwide - they have these inflexible hard numerical limits on earnings that effectively disincentivise people from getting back into work or becoming independent all in the name of fraud prevention. The systems lacks the flexiblity to recongise that people's health and ability to work ebbs and flows.

The moment they earn more than 1200 USD they might no longer be considered disabled by the state. The baked in assumption is that not that we should be providing an accessible offramp to independence and a fallback to support if it goes wrong, but that any demonstration of independence should be met with treating your future claims as fraud.


Hit the nail on the head.


There is usually a cap on what one can earn while continuing to receive disability. I think the total of disability and other income cannot exceed 60% of pre-disability earnings or something like that.


That is correct. And if you lose it for that reason, it's very difficult and takes a long time to get back, even if you actually need it to survive.


…Which is the biggest problem with the whole setup. The risk of losing disability and not being able to get it back is too high for most people to even try to re-enter the labor market. The whole thing needs to be redesigned from the ground up.


Have you thought about becoming a Blockchain developer? You mentioned that you wrote Python scripts for automating and you did other front-end web development.

I would like to share with you this article: https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/the-roadmap-to-become-a-bloc...

It was written by Federico Caccia, CEO of Rather Labs.

From understanding the basics to mastering advanced concepts, this comprehensive guide has it all.

Let me know if it was useful for you! Good luck with everything!


Teaching conversational English online can easily earn $15-25/hr, especially if you have an American accent. The hours might be weird but once you have some students, they become consistent.


To follow up on this, something completely overlooked in "teaching English" is being able to do language instruction in a specialist field. I did this for Lenovo employees in Beijing and earned much more per hour than any contract work recruiters shovel my way...and that was 12 years ago.

As with anything, the hard work is finding the first jobs. Connect with China or Japan based folks and go from there. OP feel free to email me (my hn handle at icloud) if you'd like to talk more about this.


You say you have problem solving competence. Then if you can do 3 easy to medium algorithmic coding problems in 1.5 hours, you do stand a chance at some remote work companies like Toptal. You may have to brush up your skills to do a mock project as well. Example React for UI and a backend language (Python/Java/Go anything really). Also you can work part time via this, its not necessarily full time.

Edit: Wish you good luck, whichever path you choose.


I can solve hard algorithms questions. I've worked at FAANG.

It's just not the problem unfortunately. I cannot actually work consistently due to my disability and because of the way disability is setup I cannot really work and get a 1099 or W2 or I risk losing coverage which is just entirely unacceptable right now.


You could try moonlight work, they seem to have some python jobs available. I like it better than Upwork and Fiver.

Another option could be to freelance as a code reviewer, I've never tried it but it seems interesting [1]

[0] https://www.moonlightwork.com/ [1] https://app.pullrequest.com/signups/reviewer


Unsure what is possible but perhaps remote tier 2-3 technical support for some might be an option? Potentially for a federal agency that hires contractors for such purposes?

Often hard to find people that can do the job right, and I’d imagine post COVID that remote is very doable. Unsure on flexibility but for escalations it’s nice to have somebody you can call whenever they’re available.

Edit: sounds like this type of job might lose you part of your disability so this may not be an option.


My experience is once you step off the path, you're done with corporate W-2. HR will blacklist you if you didn't work 40 hrs in the same job title or one step down last week. Its all about risk minimization and blame minimization for the hiring team, never about "finding someone who can do it" or "finding someone who has done it". Maybe the way to put it is we all know what it takes to work and do a job is not what it takes to get hired. I haven't worked W-2 in some years and its probable I'll never be allowed to work W-2 again beyond McDonalds-level jobs. If you step off the path once, you'll never be permitted the risk of stepping off again.

Staffing-type companies work MUCH better. Someone in IT dept is on maternity leave until March, do whatever you can to help them for two months. Shockingly you can sometimes get 2x to even 3x their "regular" pay for temp. Plenty of companies have never read their Fred Brooks and think if a project is late they can throw talent at it and it'll get done quicker (spoiler alert, more bodies = later due date every time), regardless I don't mind profiting off their project management inexperience. A permanent-ish "grind away at the desk for years" at the corporate job is probably completely off the table; look for big upgrade projects, 2am maintenance/upgrade projects, etc. Baby sitting server upgrades at 2am is not glamorous, but it can be very profitable... Even less glamorous is taking the on call shift at 2am, but when you bill per hour it feels better... I could never work on call permanently, just a few months will burn most people completely out, but this contract ends on march 31st so I can wait it out.

Recruiter-type companies are hit and miss. They usually take a HUGE percentage cut (so you're taking a huge pay cut) but its usually a fixed-ish percentage so they want you billing 40+ hours every week to maximize their cut. Its the same hoops for them to jump thru for a 3-month part time contract at $75 as for a 12-month full time contract at $175 so you're at the back of the list unless they're infinitely bored. Spoiler, they're almost never bored.

Its kind of important to note if you need to report income monthly or annually. Monthly could be tricky, annual would likely be pretty easy. The work tends to be feast or famine; think of your relationship with your car mechanic, either you want it done yesterday and him working 24 hrs/day or you have zero interest in paying him a penny; this is how your clients will look at you. So if you're close to your income budget it'll be pretty easy to not sign a short term contract for awhile or until next year or whatever. On the other hand if you have to report income monthly that might be painful as you'll run into places that bill net-30, net-90, net-seems-like-forever and you'll suddenly get a check large enough to buy a car, but it'll be one and only one check. Here's two totally different phrases "So I see your monthly income is $30K" vs "Once, one month I got a single check for $30K, but that was the only check I got for about half a year".


a few people mentioned technical writing so I will also just plug my repo quickly which has my favourite resources to learn more about tech writing and also a list of companies that pay for it (often per article so very flexible).

https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing


You mention Python and CMS - are there not thousands of Django development jobs out there? A quick search found them in high income areas and tons of remote positions as well. Even if you don't know Django itself, if you have python and CMS - it should be a natural step. It's not super sexy or new but it's very embedded in some companies.


Maybe some of the open source bounty services listed on the FOSSjobs wiki?

https://fossjobs.net/ https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources


Also have you considered becoming a remote-actuary? We refi'd our house in the US and had to sign documents while living in Berlin and the bank allowed the use of an actuary which we found via a broker online -- I can't remember which. Apparently they can make decent money and you can decide how many gigs to take.


Maybe work in some field that isn't software. In retail part timers are more accepted for instance. Where I am companies typically expect 40 hours if you are a man so unless you're a woman you are out of luck. Even then you might still be out of luck. I've never seen anyone do two days a week for instance.


>I've written some scripts and other little projects for people I know here and there for small amounts, but it is extremely inconsistent availability even though they trust what I deliver.

Expand your network a little. Ask them for their help for new jobs. You helped them, maybe they can help you?

How about becoming a (software) tester?


I did about 6 months as a part time TA for a virtual coding bootcamp a while back to earn a little extra cash. The pay wasn't great, but it was easy work and not too many hours. Might be ideal for someone in your situation.

On a side note, this is why means testing kinda sucks. Sorry that you have to deal with it.


Means testing?


Means testing is when the government uses your income to determine eligibility for a benefit. It's why you have to worry about making "too much" money to continue qualifying for disability assistance.


Oh okay I see yeah


2018 is not that far out of date, dude.


I'm sure my skillset is timeless. It's just the modern web tech stacks would require probably weeks of ramp up from me, and that's hard to commit to in my position.


If you're not working, you have lots of time to learn new things. Why limit yourself to your existing skill set? You don't mention vision issues, so frontend, which is what I do, is probably well within your reach.


Learn to trade. Trade stocks, options, or futures. Just pick one and get good at it. It takes 2-4 yrs to be profitable due to needed behavior changes and knowledge and experience needed.


Remote email/chat based technical support could be an option. Mostly repetitive and rote but it would give you the chance to use some detective skills and help a few people.


Look for a “support” contract type roles. “I’ll be on call to support your XYZ system for $1200 a month.” Or y’know, how every many clients you want to take on to get there.


Hey, get in touch with me at andrea@techinterview.coach - we are expanding our coaches #s and it's a fun and rewarding side gig :)


outco is almost always hiring for tech coaches. Lots of bootcamps are always hiring for coaches. It really doesnt mater what your background is, you will probably know more than the typical person coming through the progress. These are typically 1099 or part time W-2 positions which allow you to pick your hours.


What's the best way to contact you? How many hours are you looking to reasonably put in?


I put some contact information on my profile.

We can discuss further from there.


Maybe this could help get you by? https://www.userinterviews.com/hello

disclaimer: I have no relationship with them. I just heard they were a sponsor of Talk Python To Me -- a podcast I listen to and I thought the idea was interesting.


Naive question but can you do it through a friend? You get the contract on your friend/relative name, you do the work, you pay his/her taxes for that work and whatever overhead then the friend dispenses you enough money so you don’t lose disability?


Isn’t that fraud?


Yes.


Maybe creating a python udemy course with simple ai applications?


How many hours can you potentially work?


I don't really know. I can say with confidence that I cannot be consistent for months at a time. I've been in and out of the hospital every 6 months since 2018.


That is so stressful. A close relative has a similar situation. It is cyclical and is a condition that for some people does improve long term, so when she is on the upswing there is always the thought/hope that it might continue to improve. Then after a few months it goes the other way. Absolutely crushing. At this point, she has something akin to PTSD from battling through these cycles over the years. Hope you can find a sustainable groove.


I'm curious what your relative is going through because mine seems cyclical as well.


Started a few years ago as a neuroimmune disorder with periodic and horrific OCD, depression, muscular failures, inability to concentrate, ... Much of that has passed, but it has morphed into ME/CFS. That still still seems triggered and/or related to an underlying neuroimmune issue. When the immune system kicks up, an autoimmune condition also ramps up and causes inflammation in the brain (among other things), which in turn leads to all sorts of symptoms. She used to run half marathons but now a flight of stairs are a big challenge.

None of it is well understood and there aren't good treatments. Some treatments help some people, but it is kind of hit or miss and most of the potential treatments aren't cheap.

It is actually similar in many ways to some forms of long covid, so bizarrely, covid and subsequent research may lead to better therapies that could help her as well. At least that's the hope...


disability caps out at 185 or 195? (One of these two numbers) a week...where are you getting 1200 from?


I'm referring to SSDI and private disability companies in the United States. Particularly, phone calls with representatives from these companies. It may very well be different now I haven't exactly asked about it in a couple of years now. Before it was 20% of your pre-disability income per month. Since I was a software engineer, that came up to around $1200. If I google it looks like $1470 for SSDI in 2023 is your maximum earnable income in 2023. But I haven't really tried to even meet these numbers for fear of losing disability coverage by some shady for-profit disability company means.


OP is probably on SSDI. Max payout per month is $3627. Average payment is $1358/month.

https://evansdisability.com/blog/social-security-disability-...


[flagged]


There are medical conditions that do not allow full time employment, period. I have no idea what the condition of the OP is but several conditions leave a person with a very limited "labour budget" beyond which they just cant perform. In such a condition the daily budget might allow either for grocery shopping, or few hours of work, but not both.

If this is the case, dropping on your own could be very precarious and potentially financially devastating.


unpopular opinion on hn but crypto and web3 is an amazing industry


You could try Toptal. It's a bit different from other freelancing sites.


Toptal doesn't deserve our support: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/at-booming-toptal-no...


I run far, far away from companies that openly advertise that they hire the top X percent of talent. There should be talent agencies dedicated for the "rest" that still generate good solid value, but also don't charge top dollar.


They technically hire the top percent that pass their screening process. Those are the candidates that put in the effort to solve coding challenges and work on test projects. And once you're in, you don't have to go through any assessments again, there is no bidding on projects or race to the bottom, you set your rate and you can find hourly, part-time or full time work that suits your skill set.


Can you suggest a few such agencies?


Depending on the rigidity of your conscience you could whip up some buzzword laden project with "blockchain" written all over it.

Some suckers will throw money at that if you give it a colourful website with plenty of vague promises that you never have to deliver.


I think you need to be more explicit on the specifics of revenue mechanism to be helpful. Anyone can host a buzzword laden web page for sure, but what would the specific funnel and revenue generation mechanism be?


I have a hard time with tutoring as it is because most students (at least where I'm getting them) just want the work done for them and typically come to you last moment.


And you want to earn money for rent. You don’t need to move the needle of academic achievement for a generation.

If they come to you with money in hand and are just a little intellectually lazy or have worse time management than you’d like, you can still make a mutually beneficial trade.

Only offering tutoring to the most motivated students with the best time management skills is a self-limiting market.


Replace blockchain with AI


Blockchain based AI NFT disrupter




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: