Thanks, yes, that was kind of my angle here. The fact that her son that she is now getting child support for will soon be off to college and, hopefully, making his own way soon. I realize that the child support is supposed to be directed to the care of the child, but I can practically guarantee that he will see very little of it once he leaves the house. And if she continues to receive it for many years, it will be eaten up by her fondness for shopping, not buying pampers for her 20-something year old son. So yes, I was kind of tossing it out that she will (as long as the checks keep coming) be getting extra income beyond her SS check. And if she were to actually manage herself medically well, she could even work part time and potentially be making much closer to what I make once you add it all up.

Thanks for the info regarding the SS checks. Probably would have taken me hours of research on some govt website to have found that on my own.