Wife being denied SSD due to my financial situation. Do we have options?
I am 39 and my wife is 40 we have been married for 15 years. A few years ago she was diagnosed with a chronic illness with no cure, just pain management. We have 4 kids so she has been a stay at home mom. She had a short term part time job at a restaurant but a few months into covid she was let go. She was finally able to get something about a year ago but it was a 1099 making a couple hundred a month but was recently let go. She can't stand for long, can't sit long, can't use her hands for more than a few minutes before they give out. (All our dishware is now plastic due to her inability to hold them they were dropped and broken) Driving is limited to very small intervals for same reason. Typing for small intervals before hands give out. Cant lift anything heavy, especially if it can break
Her doctor has tried many things to help and so far they have only been able to reduce how fast it gets worse. All 4 kids are still under 18, but 2 are self sufficient-ish teenagers, the other 2 required an adult. We have spent years trying to find something. She wants to work, but it can't just be anything and jobs market for her situation is limited.
Anyways, I have always had steady employment, and pre-covid I had a very well paying job. I was able to pick up 2 properties and turn them into rental income. 2022 they closed up shop and I haven't been able find anything else even close. Like 30-40% previous income. I even moved away trying to find something. After her diagnosis I moved back to help with the kids. We sold one of the properties just trying to survive. Debt exploded. Due to our local laws from covid, I couldn't remove other tenants and they stopped paying rent. I am now losing more than I am making. So we filed for SSD. We were declined and they said the reason was the "potential" rental income put us over. So we went through a lengthy eviction process and finally sold it and reapplied for SS.
We just got declined again. SSD said she doesn't have enough recent work credits due to being a stay at home mom for so long. SSI said no because I make more than $3000 a month. How can any family of six survive on less than $3k anyways. Mortgage and 2 cars puts me over $4k in bills. So I am at a loss. I have calls into an attorney but one I talked to already declined to take my case. Since they were a don't pay unless we win place, I took it to heart they don't expect to win.
Is she able to use my work credits since wrle have been married for so long?
Any advice from here?