You need to apply for Social Security Disability--it's a bit of a hassel but your local Soc Security office can guide you thru the process-along with his doctor-& once he's approved he'll be automatically covered by Medicare, no matter what his age is. The income amt is based on what he made over the years. With that reduced income you should be able to also apply to your county/district etc for Medicare coverage for you-and food stamps-plus therr's usually some local programs for assistance with utility bills-your Social Service Dept can guide you thru that.

Was he ever in the Service? Veteran's Administration would help out if so.

And sometimes clubs/ organizations such as VFW, Ameriacan Legion can be some assistance. Try Catholic Charieties, Local Rescue Mission, Salvation Army & any local food banks.

Most Drug Manufactures also have little known programs that include them furnishing their medications free of charge---just call each Company( or search out their sites through www.google.com ) that supply his meds ( Drug Company is listed somewhere on the med container)& ask about their free meds program--plus his MD might work with you & give you Drug Representative's samples to get you over the hump.

Marcia,

The Americans Disability Act/Laws might be of some use to you too-if tho that company is in Bankrupcy they might have to at least pay for the COBRA until he can be covered by Soc Secutity Disabiliy--it's worth looking into anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: ADA webpage

Hello Marcia Banner,

How are things going?

As you know - there's been a lot of funny business associated with a number of companies "going bankrupt" in recent years.

Quite likely your husband's former company has all the bases covered.

You might want to check out the trustee that is overseeing their bankruptcy.

I don't know where to suggest that you look - but check with the trustee in bankruptcy of your husband's former company, to be sure that their bankruptcy is legitimate, and that the pension plan cannot recover any of the remaining assets.

No doubt there are a fairly large number of creditors. They may be checking out to see whether there appears to be some skulduggery involved.

What they will be seeking is to recover some/as much as possible of the debt that is owed to them.

The agency managing their pension plan may have had money rather improperly removed - in which case they might be able to claim to be one of the creditors.

You say that you received a message from the company saying that the pension would be terminated. Which may mean that the whole of the pension fund was managed in-house - so money that was removed to keep the company operational may have been legal, even if most of us would say that it was largely immoral.

I wrote in another area that we all should learn major lessons from some of this rash of recent bankruptcies:

-if you own stock in your company, best move some of it elsewhere when it becomes free and you can do as you please with it, and

-if your pension plan is managed by your company, work with other employees to get the underlying funds moved to a third party - so that if your company goes bankrupt, the pension remains intact.

I hope that, as you talk with friends, you'll encourage them to get things in motion to achieve that result in their company.

I hope that you're getting things worked out to allow you to keep your head above water.

Good wishes to you - and hubby.

joyful guy

You can apply for social security disability without ever leaving home. It can be done on-line. Just go to the social security site. It isn't fast. You will have to wait about 4 months or so provided that you have fairly recent medical records to document your husband's condition. If you don't, the social security administration will pay for an exam, but that will slow things up a bit. Once your payments start you should get a lump sum payment for the 12 months prior to filing plus the four months or so that you had to wait after filing. They won't go back more than a year though.