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)
Comments
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Tony
Looking back on my previous comment (hindsight is 20/20) I regret commenting my opinions on the Social Security website.
PhucLinh
The new rule said if a worker cannot speak English, he or she cannot get SSDI
Is that correct ?
Thanks
Louis F.
I have been receiving social security since 2017. This has been based on payments dating back to 1990. Is it possible to have my benefits reviewed since I have been paying in again from 1999 through present.
Sek m.
None of us can provide any input. New Rule is already in effect. Your article is dated 2016 with responses and input due December 2016. Do you read what you send out to the American citizens?What’s with that?
Tony
I don’t know how much more politicized a basic economic principle could get. You must lift up the poorest households for a successful country. Social Security should be EXPANDED and EASIER to receive. How much longer do we need to look at line graphs that show 1% of the population owning 99% of the wealth? It’s passed the point of Republicans / Democrats, it’s passed the point of Trump / Sanders politics, it’s gotten to a point where our elected officials should be having emergency meetings on budget reconciliation and reallocation of federal spending.
Kala L.
That’s not a disability!!! They can hear, see, walk, move but don’t speak english to bad, you all wont let me learn ASL in school because of my disability and tell me to learn on my own! Then they too should learn on their own! I had to apply 3 times with Bilateral Meniere’s, my husband has Severe Ataxia but was denied 4 times and had to get a lawyer, when it reached the judge she noticed his claims were never even read! We’re American and you could not care! No this not a disability!
DAWN M.
some one who can not speak english is not useful in our country at all and I wonder how it is they got her and how the get paid for staying anti english…this is so anti american!!
Cathleen G.
I read somewhere that going on Disability affects your social security benefits. Is that true? If it is, why? Aren’t they 2 different programs under the government?
Angela k.
I am on social security now but find it now impossible to pay my rent due to unforeseen cerci stance . I will be 69 this year is there any help
Alwyn M.
As with any new rules, I feel one of the missing links is providing updated training to staff in local area SSA offices. The staff in my local office seem unaware (or indifferent) to many of the rules that apply to SS benefits. For example, my federal financial aid is deemed as income against SSI benefits….this should not be the case (according to POMS). I cannot seem to make my local office understand this…clearly they lack adequate training.