Learn more about The Faces and Facts of Disability at the Social Security Administration’s website by clicking here or the graphic above.
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Some lawmakers are saying that Social Security is facing a crisis. The Senate Budget Committee recently held a hearing on “The Coming Crisis: Social Security Disability Trust Fund Insolvency;” today, a House subcommittee is holding a hearing on the “looming insolvency of the Disability Insurance program.”
Related Reading:
The Washington Post’s editorial board used its paper’s own flawed profile of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients to justify the unsubstantiated claim that the program discourages people with disabilities from working and therefore “needs reform” in the form of increased restrictions and benefit cuts.
via Media Matters.
Related Reading:
Disability Insurance is Part of Social Security Whether Mick Mulvaney Likes It or Not.
President Donald Trump’s budget would break one of his campaign promises to “keep Social Security intact.” Trump’s budget, according to several news sources that obtained leaked documents, would make significant cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which benefit disabled and low-income Americans.
via Think Progress.
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“In our America, we do not cast seniors into the cold. We do not take food out of their mouths or make it harder to get the healthcare they so desperately need. In short, we do not cut off our most vulnerable citizens at the knees to pay for a massive tax break for the wealthy and big corporations.”
Our statement on the budget can be found here.
via twitter.
Related Reading:
Letter to Senate Aging Committee on SSA Field
Office Closures.
- I believe that the availability of conveniently located and adequately staffed Social Security field offices is crucial to providing good service to America’s seniors and to maintaining the public’s support for Social Security, Medicare, and other programs that SSA administers.
I read a recent article on Social Security Disability with great interest. My brother is among one of those dying while the Social Security Administration drags its feet, ignoring his desperate cry for help…
…It has been more than a year since he filed his Social Security claim and has to go through the process of appeal. He has had to get a lawyer. Because he was in the Navy, he has to use the Veteran’s Administration medical assistance, which is 35 miles from his home. He often does not have the gas money it takes to get there because he has been made so poor by all of this.
via Quad City Times.
Related Reading:
- Social Security’s 82nd anniversary — why doesn’t this agency still have an adequate budget?
- Today, Social Security provides basic financial security for some 61 million Americans. Two out of three seniors rely on Social Security for most of their income, and one-third of seniors depend on it for at least 90 percent of their income. It is one of the most efficient federal programs. Less than 1 percent of Social Security’s revenue goes to administrative costs — the rest, to beneficiaries.
- In fact, the SSA’s core operating budget has shrunk by 10 percent since 2010…
- These cuts resulted in an SSA hiring freeze, the closure of more than 60 field offices across the country, and lengthy delays in processing Disability Insurance (DI) applications appeals. (Some 1 million applicants are awaiting much-delayed hearings.)
By attacking Social Security Disability Insurance specifically, Republicans seem to think they can start dismantling the whole of Social Security without openly targeting it.
Further reading: Disabled Americans are Conservatives’ New “Welfare Queens”.
In order to justify its $64 billion in cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), the Trump administration and its allies have had to propagate several myths. The most insidious one is that many SSDI recipients are not truly worthy of benefits. They have suggested that mental illness is among the more dubious qualifications for SSDI. Senator Rand Paul famously remarked that “over half the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts.”
More on this issue can be found here.
People who have applied for Social Security Disability Insurance and been turned down twice are having to wait a record number of days to get a hearing in front of a judge and receive a decision.
The average wait time is 596 days or 19½ months, up from 545 days in September and only 353 days in 2012. The backlog of cases pending a hearing stands at about 1.1 million, up from 700,000 in 2010.
Those who ultimately win their case can get federal disability benefits, known as SSDI, dating back to five months after the date of their original claim. (Some can get benefits retroactive to their original claim, if they can prove they were disabled before they filed it.)
Related Reading:
- Social Security’s 82nd anniversary — why doesn’t this agency still have an adequate budget?
- Today, Social Security provides basic financial security for some 61 million Americans. Two out of three seniors rely on Social Security for most of their income, and one-third of seniors depend on it for at least 90 percent of their income. It is one of the most efficient federal programs. Less than 1 percent of Social Security’s revenue goes to administrative costs — the rest, to beneficiaries.
- In fact, the SSA’s core operating budget has shrunk by 10 percent since 2010…
- These cuts resulted in an SSA hiring freeze, the closure of more than 60 field offices across the country, and lengthy delays in processing Disability Insurance (DI) applications appeals. (Some 1 million applicants are awaiting much-delayed hearings.)
In the omnibus bill, the Social Security Administration (SSA) gets an increase of $480 million over the previous fiscal year, including $100 million for reducing the backlog in Social Security Disability Insurance hearings – which some 10,000 Americans died waiting for in 2017.
via Entitled to Know.
Senator Romney’s legislation has no provisions to ensure that future #seniors’ earned benefits are adequate for the expenses they will face. #TRUSTact @RepJohnLarson https://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/romneys-trust-act-is-back-again/