Consider, if you will, a family. Five generations.
Bill, Sr. is 90 years old. He served as a mechanic on an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific during WWII. When the war ended, he returned home to Demopolis, Alabama, where he worked for forty-plus years as an auto mechanic. His wife, Martha, passed away ten years ago. He recently moved in with his son, Bill, Jr., who rents a two-bedroom house. The arrangement is proving tough to manage. Bill, Sr. has macular degeneration, moderate dementia, type-2 diabetes, severe arthritis in his hips, and several other age-related ailments. His doctor has advised Bill, Jr., that his father needs full-time care in a nursing home. Bill, Sr. has no appreciable debts or assets.
Bill, Jr. is 65 years old. Like his father before him, he is an auto mechanic in Demopolis. He makes $32,700 per year. Also like his father, he has health problems. He needs knee replacement surgery and the arthritis in his fingers is making it impossible for him to continue in the only job he's ever known. He takes medications for high cholesterol and asthma, and he had a mild heart attack six months ago. His place of employment does not offer retirement benefits. He is not married and has no appreciable debts or assets.
Bill III -- Bill, Jr.'s son -- is a 42-year-old fast food manager in Tuscaloosa making $28,200 per year. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has been deemed permanently disabled. He is not married and is estranged from his only child, daughter Billie. He has no appreciable debts or assets.
Billie is Bill III's 20-year-old daughter. She left home immediately after graduating from high school, moving to Birmingham with her high school sweetheart, Beau, who took a job as an electrician's assistant at a construction company. Beau was recently killed in a car accident six months after they were married. Billie works as a convenience store clerk. She makes $14,000 per year with no health benefits, and she is five months pregnant. She wants to be a nurse.
So. What social safety nets are available to them? Get as specific about costs and benefits as you can, down to dollar figures if possible. Here are a few hints:
But don't let that limit you. If you can find other programs, more power to you.
I don't expect us to figure out all the answers here. One of the main points of this exercise is to see just how complicated it is for an individual to navigate through a government program. Hence, when you report back to the group, it will be just as valuable for you to enumerate the questions this process has raised for you.
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