(Almost) Living with a Child with Autism

I have a 4 yr old son, with autism. We are a low-income family, we are not wealthy..by any means. My son has finally been given SSI income every month, to help pay for all the care and therapy he will need in order to become a working citizen of the USA.Unfortunately..we, like many, many other parents of children with Autism, have been told that my childs funding, that is given to help him with his therapy and costs of having a child with Autism, has to be used for all our other expenses..house, car, insurance, electric, gas, food..by the DFS Dept.. They are counting my sons disability as "Unearned Income"..this,
I have found, is not uncommon.

Many parents of Autistic children basically have to give up on doing all they can for their kids, simply because the funding that is given to them from social security is counted into figuring out whether or not the family qualifies to receive other benefits,such as food stamps. In esscence, if the SSI disability funding is used for "The family bills"..and you have to resort to using all of your earned income to buy food, and pay your other bills, you are left with virtually nothing to use for your childs cost of care. There are so many things my son could use, but its all so expensive..a therapy animal costs about $1,500.00-$3,000.00..a therapy indoor swing about $450.00..to get him into Judevine Center for Autism $300.00..and thats just the tip of the icegerg.This is what SSI disability is supposed to be used for, things he needs..things to help him become a working member of society one
day.

With the rate of children having Autism, on the rise, you would think the Government would do all they could to help these kids and these families.Whats to become of the world 10..15..20 years from now? When the world will be run by all these kids, all these children born with Autism,who never received help when they were young enough to make it possible for them to live in "our" world?. I personally don't think that parents with disabled children should have their childrens disability counted against them, when the disability income is meant "for" the child,not for the familys daily living expenses.

The US Government needs to wake-up, and look at where the future is heading..not at the here and now, because the children they are turning away today..will eventually be the adults of tomorrow.