New Rule Modernizes How We Award Disability Benefits
Reading Time: 1 MinuteLast Updated: February 24, 2020
The Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society. A successful disability program must evolve and support making the right decision as early in the process as possible. To help us do that, we must modernize the rules and standards we use to evaluate how we determine disability benefits. We are moving forward with a rule change that has been in the works for a number of years and serves to update a more than 40-year-old policy that made the inability to communicate in English a factor in awarding disability benefits. The new rule is effective April 27, 2020.
We are required to consider education to determine if your medical condition prevents work. In 2015, our Inspector General recommended that we evaluate the appropriateness of this policy. Research now shows the inability to communicate in English is no longer a good measure of a person’s education level or the ability to engage in work. The new rule also supports the Administration’s longstanding focus of recognizing that individuals with disabilities can remain in the workforce.
To make the right disability decisions, Social Security disability rules must continue to reflect current medicine and evolution of work. We need to update our rules to keep up with society’s changes.
We owe it to the American public to ensure that our disability programs continue to reflect the realities of the modern workplace. Please share this information with your family and friends.
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About the Author
Andrew Saul, Commissioner, Social Security Administration
Commissioner of Social Security Administration (June 17, 2019 - July 9, 2021)
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Shawn E.
I have a almost 18 yrs old daughter that has alot medical and mental issues these medical and mental issues have caused her so many school days. I have to pull her out of school because she constantly has something coming up for her to miss school. What percentage do u think she could get SSDI?
Donna
I’m glad I’m not on government disability. I’m on railroad retirement disability. I get paid almost three times what someone on SSDI gets paid and way more than SSI gets paid. I have multiple mental illnesses and then after getting placed on full disability due to my mental illnesses I had a back surgery that put me disabled to the point where I have a disabled tag on my car because of the state of my health. I got approved in 30 days not 3 to 5 years. I watched my stepfather wait 5 years when he had been hit by a car and landed in between two gas tanks after being thrown in the air so far and his hip and femur were out of his leg and he had to have reconstructive surgery and he was in traction for 6 months and then had to learn how to walk again and he couldn’t get disability. The whole system with the government is flawed. Hispanic black white doesn’t matter . So they must be saying if somebody has a bachelor’s degree and they’ve had a spinal fusion and are on bed rest for a year that they should be able to work a laptop from their bed to make a paycheck instead of getting what they paid into the whole time they’ve been working and for me that was 20 years and I was 36 years old I had worked since I was 16 and had never missed one single day I was never unemployed one day I would leave on a Friday and start the new job on a Monday. My attorney called me didn’t even charge me anything but the mailing of the forms because he said that he had never seen somebody that had a immaculate work history. I’ll be 40 in a few months and I worked a very good job but mentally at the time I could not handle life and working and having a child and a family all at the same time. I still ended up divorced and now I’m by myself and that makes it 10 times worse. This is not helping anybody. This is helping the government approve less people. They sugar coated a turd.
Douglas
I had an amputation on my right foot and don’t know how I can get SSI disability
Daniel T.
Does this affect my case in any way
deborah S.
I’ve worked in healthcare facility for 45. Yrs
I have developed neuropathy in my hands feet legs but I cannot take off work to apply for disability .i think we should be able to try work to make living until we can get our disability .my husband had to fight for his disability took him 4 yrs and we had to go bankruptcy we lost it all .then he past away
Laws need to change
Bryan
Everyone should work but most places won’t hire someone with a disability…what makes me mad is the worthless people I know personally getting that help and there isn’t anything wrong with them needs to change… I deal with serious pain everyday but work my butt off
Susanne
Like I said, I have tried to work several full time jobs and my mental illness gets in the way. It is very hard to hold a job with racing thoughts so that you can’t focus or concentrate. I also hear voices in my head and have paranoid thoughts. I suffer from schizophrenia and mood disorder. Don’t compare that to a little physical pain. Not even close!!!! I think it is much harder to hold a job with a mental illness than any physical illness. So please don’t spew your bullshit! Get a real disability first!
TJ
I think it’s pretty absurd that anyone can be in the US and get disability that cannot speak English. If you go any other place you’re going to have to learn their language. We are the home of the free, free to do anything and let everybody walk on us and abused our system, free to do this ,free to do that there’s no requirements here. Just come in do what you want stay as long as you want, pass it on to your kids that never had to learn the language.I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have to or want to learn the English language??You would have to in any other country, and it makes me angry the people can come in here and don’t even have to do a simple thing like learn the language of the land and try to force our country to convert to their wants or the rules of their country. Try to make us, like them. The US has always been predominantly English, because we let people in here and were nicer than any other country , and we want people to have a better life this possible in this country,,now they don’t even have to learn the language. That’s a abusing our country.Personally I don’t think you should even be allowed to be in this country unless you agree to the American, USA s way of life. If you don’t like it, go back where you would. I’m not against anyone being here, but live like the land you’re going to ,don’t try to change it all.
Susanne
How dumb are you??? That isn’t the problem here. It’s how it’s being sold! I have schizophrenia and mood disorder. I’ve tried to work several full time jobs and my mental illness always got in the way. Now, I could lose my benefits because I have an education. Read the full intent of the law. By the way, you have to be a US citizen to get benefits. People aren’t being denied benefits because they can’t speak English. In fact, I was in honors English in high school but now I might lose my benefits because of this new law. You dumbass Trump supporters are all the same!
Charlotte I.
What if u already get disablty will hurt u
Roger L.
I have worked and paid taxes since age 16. Now at age 61 i have to suffer because of the ineptness i have experienced in dealing with my disability eligibility agent. He never requested the imagery that clearly shows my maladies. I will probably die before i am eligible for SS. And my last years on earth….will be daily pain and poverty. Because one person ….paid to do a jobm…..simply didnt give a damn. He never even returned my calls. Roger…..Nashville Tn
michelle l.
My son worked 2 full time jobs till he got sick. Your wonderful dept.dragged his claim out for so long he had to refile. Yep you guessed it. He got approved at the lowest amount! He will never work again. He has 2 children. Yeah. And Pelosi took what???