THE NEW `UNEMPLOYABLE' PEOPLE

My wife joined a pen pal group on the Internet.She met a woman who worked for a company through her own computer.

Her job was to notify people via the Internet of her company's web package product.

If the Internet users went to the site and purchased the product he would include her name.

Her pay was a percentage of the purchase price.

The more she sold and the more she could recruit, the better her paycheck.

In other words, she spent long periods of time in front of her computer contacting potential customers at low pay.

It was a living.

It was work she could do and she had to do to meet expenses.

Her children were grown and she was divorced, but that was not all.

She was unemployable in the job force, but she didn't qualify for disability.

Working an eight-hour shift was too painful for her feet and legs which sometimes became numb and gave out.

She didn't qualify for Social Security yet.

Her question to my wife was, "So, are you one of those unemployable people, too?"

As the baby boomers are realizing that the things in life one has really, don't mean much if you don't have your health.

If you don't have much to begin with, living becomes a struggle.

If you are working and have medical coverage it becomes the most important benefit when your diagnosed with a chronic or life threatening illness. Don't switch jobs after the fact because an employer will not likely hire someone who is a high health risk or who is not eligible for health insurance.

The only alternative is to be self-employed.

If disease or an accident has affected you enough, your doctor will be notified after you place your application for disability.

The government will pull your medical records for the past five years for determination. This is where many get stuck because they are not disabled enough by government standards and have to reapply.

If you pass that hurdle, you become eligible.

You have a two-year waiting period before you receive disability.

You may qualify for Social Security Insurance and public aid during that time depending on who you live with and how much income they make.

In the meantime you are left standing in government lines filling out form after form having memorized your condition and status from rote.

You learn what to say to whom and for what reason.

If you don't know the language then you lose.

If you goof up through no fault of your own, you start all over.

Friends and relatives may not be able to help you.

They can't spend the amount of time needed on your problems because they are working and have their family and priorities, nor are you helpless in your own right.

It's realizing which agency to talk to and get what you need done.

This is trial and error.

So, frustrated by seeing your resources dwindling, you finally qualify for disability.

You thank God for the assistance and then find out by government standards that a woman with two children making $30,000 a year is at the poverty level.

Your income barely gets you past utility bills, food and taxes.

You don't qualify for food stamps because your disability income is $3 over the government's qualification limit.

Public aid is not a free ride.

They expect their money returned.

Everything of value you have worked for, including the equity of your house, keeps you alive.

On your next hospitalization the nurses tell you that you should be qualified for some federal assistance because they know people with less disability getting more for their dollar.

You qualify for meals on wheels, but are told to get in line behind the senior citizens because they come first.

You finally have the anger to fight "city hall." If you're lucky you might even get an apology from public aid.

There are those services in the community that come out to help you for a fee.

Your church makes the best offer.

If you belong, there is prayer, understand and communion for the spirit and help to help you help yourself.

The computer was bought before our health crisis, and it is a window to the world.

My wife does not want to be a slave worker to the computer, but she did say, "Yes, I'm one of the new unemployable."

Bob Fracaro is resident of Joliet and a member of the Barnes & Noble Writers Group.