Social Security Announces Major Change in Disability Benefits Major change announced for how Social Security disability eligibility is determined Social Security Administration (SSA) made a significant change to its disability benefits program since the disability definition changed. As of this week, the SSA will evaluate disabled people differently to determine whether they meet disability conditions to be accepted into the program or not. The decision was made in response to findings that some jobs that disabled individuals might be able to perform were not generally available in the American labor market.
The disability definition changed for the disability benefits program in the United States
Until this year, the Social Security Administration stated that to meet our definition of disability, you had to be unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity (SGA) due to a medically determinable physical or mental disability(ies) that was either expected to result in death or had lasted or is expected to last for at least 12 months. However, as previously mentioned, the federal agency announced they would change this definition, as the SSA reported that it discovered 114 positions with few job opportunities, including those for models, astronomers, and agricultural engineers.
Therefore, the federal agency said that, in light of these results, they won’t use these occupations in the evaluation process for qualifying for their disability benefits program. Moreover, the organization also identified 13 occupations where judges have expressed concerns about the suitability of workers who receive the “not disabled” label. In addition, the Social Security Administration (SSA) pointed out that when determining whether a benefit application qualifies as “not disabled,” it must also consider whether the labor market offers enough jobs for those people.
According to Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley, it makes sense to identify professions that are now in extremely low demand in the country’s economy. Our decision-makers will no longer use these jobs as justification for rejecting disability benefits applications as a result of this change.
Social Security wants to be more effective in the process of analyzing disability benefits applications
Changing the definition of disability will likely improve the disability benefits program process in choosing which candidates are eligible or not. As a result, this change will allow the Social Security Administration (SSA) to be more explicit when reviewing disability worker claims. The federal agency also underscored that it will only take into account the most pertinent professions to decide whether or not a person requesting disability payments is capable of working in other capacities. In the long term, Social Security will continue to evaluate information from the Occupational Requirements Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will guide changes.
The number of disabled workers receiving Social Security benefits from the government in May was 7.23 million, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous month. The government paid workers an average of just over $1,500 a month. According to the Social Security Administration, the agency paid out a total of just over $11 million during the month. As Newsweek previously reported, PlanPrep’s retirement specialist, Burt Williamson, recently said that there could be a multitude of explanations for the lower number of disabled workers receiving benefits from the organization.
Furthermore, he said that although he cannot be certain, he assumes that this could come from a combination of people passing away, switching from disability to retirement benefits, or losing eligibility for benefits. However, bear in mind that this is just a hypothesis made by the retirement specialist.
Applicants seeking both SSDI and SSI benefits must complete a five-step process in order to be approved, which includes providing a work history. To qualify for disability benefits, applicants must show that their disability will stop them from doing substantial work for at least 1 year or is expected to result in death.
A work history is required to determine if the disability actually prevents the applicants from being able to do the job. However, asking applicants to recall 15 years of previous work experience can be difficult for some people according to administration. The agency also no longer requires applicants to list work experience that lasted for less than 30 calendar days.
