I've been living on $750 per month in disability for the last decade while paying at least $450 in rent. That rent comes outta my pocket because I don't want to live in an assisted living apartment, not when I don't need the specialized housing and others could. Unfortunately other low income housing is still very prone to crime in my area.
If you're on disability with half your income coming from SSI you will never so much as break even by working, you'll lose more in benefits than you're allowed to make from earned income. That's if you're able to work at all, or you get a job that doesn't pay pennies on the dollar because there's no minimum wage for disabled workers. If you get married, or even if you just have a heterosexual roommate they suspect you're in a close relationship with, that person's income will be deemed to you, and they would (as far as the govt is concerned) have to support you.
For those that rely on in home care, only covered by the need based Medicaid program, they have to choose between getting married and having the medical care that they need.
And then whether you don't work because you're unable, or don't work because it would put you further behind, folks like that woman are always going to exist. But you'll hear it from family, folks who were your friends, new people you'd like to befriend. There's always this presumption that they wouldn't allow themselves to become dependent were your positions switched.
Up until just this year, anybody getting SSI was required to have less than $2k in assets, so saving up money for anything outside of a medical expense trust was out of the question. Now the ABLE act allows folks to save up in a tax advantaged account, like working folks have IRA's. Course I just spoke with a disability rights advocate this morning who'd never heard of it when I'd asked if I could have help setting one up.
You wait on the phone for about thirty minutes a call for any of the agencies you get assistance from, think calling COMCAST but the product is your survival and there's no competition. I went months without food stamps and Medicaid though eligible because of an inter county clerical error. I only had about fifty bucks for food so it got pretty scary (don't be proud, find a food bank). People can be impatient and generally one agency will tell you to call another in an infinite loop. Last time I called for assistance instead of directing me to an advocacy agency they encouraged me to talk to a pastor. Because at the end of the day, if you can't live off of the 10k you get per year, the bottom of the rabbit hole is the emergency room or jail.
I'd hope those who'd judge harshly would understand illness can hit at any time medical bills and student loans can eat away anything you might have built for yourself, or could hit before you were old enough to get ahead at all.
It's all I've ever known for my adult life, I worked two jobs and went to school from the time I was a teen until I got sick. I never meant to be lazy, I wanted a job and a family of my own, but I wouldn't have a kid I couldn't take care of. It's hard to think people can be so judgmental, because surviving is a full time job in itself, and socially a lot of a person's worth seems to be tied to their ability to generate capital and take home wages. I try not to think of myself as somehow less worthwhile as a person for it all, but it gets hard.