Thank you again, scrubbyfish,
I guess I am more concerned about the money I inherited being protected in a retirement account. Since I am no longer working I cannot contribute to a 401K or 403 retirement account, although I can continue to put money away in an Individualized
Retirement Account. This lowers the amount I can save in retirement accounts. If I were still working, I would have more options and be able to put more money away in actual retirement accounts. Since I am not working, my money will not be protected from being considered available for using for my son's tuition (money in retirement accounts are not counted as being available for tuition payments). My problem is not that I do not have money to contribute to my retirement, but that I don't know if there are special retirement accounts for disabled people. I did, however try to look this up online, but after not finding any information, I finally wrote to my senator's office to see if they could give me any info.
As far as the benefits I was referring to, in the USA everyone, except for some teachers and some other municipal workers, are required to pay into the Social Security system and are covered by these benefits. Even self-employed workers, small business owners, consultants and part time workers are covered by this program as they, and their employers, are required to pay into them under the federal law. Not only are many teachers not in the SS program and not covered by these benefits, but we do not even have the option to pay into the system if we wanted to, and would not be able to collect the benefits even if we paid into it previously with other jobs.
It is all very confusing, and most teachers do not even realize the impact of not being in the SS system until something happens to them. Also, most everyone who is not a teacher is shocked when they find out many teachers are not covered by SS, as it is a federal law for everyone else to be in the system.
Thank you again for your advice. I really appreciate it