Disability

New Rule Modernizes How We Award Disability Benefits

February 24, 2020 • By

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Last Updated: February 24, 2020

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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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Comments

  1. Carla P.

    In total agreement!

  2. Maureen

    What gets me are the ones who claimed to get hurt on a job..a job where they’re a messenger just driving to Ave from hospitals worth nothing more than a piece of paper, the guy claimed her for hurt by box..a box! he didn’t carry any box.. but yet he, and the woman he head 3 kids with sat on they are collecting checks.. sorry but that’s no disability.
    the guy is skydiving with a guy on good back no less.. his partner says she can’t be around people but yet goes to casinos and clubs and vacations with no problem at all. this are the people who need to be scrutinized. They can drive from NY to Texas,, dance in clubs, etc… really?
    don’t believe me? look on Instagram for a guy name jose gomez and big lou.. you’ll find him.. from there you’ll find the rest of the family enjoying receiving checks. A whole family on Disability.. they are a third generation Social Service recipients.

    Look for Poncuraks, you’ll see plenty including the mother collecting money for cancer and two weeks later they are all on a road trip to Texas.
    check it out.. meanwhile people who truly need disability have to jump through hoops.. this are the people who should doke those new rules

  3. Julia

    The system is abused, most foreigners (legal in US) who come here either learn to speak English (or already do, since overseas English was and is a second mandatory language in school, and most who come here have excellent education) – I am one of them, or work at the manual jobs molding plastics, like my sister who is learning to speak English right now. I know of several US born people who are perfectly fluent in English but can’t talk sometimes or hold a conversation, on the other hand I know a person who can hold a job (since he is building things literally), but still receives benefits. The rules are outdated, 40 years ago, no internet, no computers (regular use), no jobs that are readily available for people with minor disabilities. I prepare tax returns for a lot of foreigners who are here on the work visas, they pay Medicare, Social Security tax and additional Medicare tax including Net Investment Income tax (God forbid you have a bank account that pays interest), and never will collect the benefits after paying thousands in to the system. This is not political, it’s just technological progression needs to be accounted for in the policy. Happy Monday to everyone.

  4. BETTY G.

    andrew,
    your staff needs to update specifically on 140.08 LYME DISEASE. you mention it and nothing more!

    you need to elaborate on that tick-borne, TB, disease plus add the other 11+ TB diseases that are here in USA….

    Anaplasmosis.
    Babesiosis.
    Bartonella
    Borrelia miyamotoi infection*
    Bourbon virus disease*
    Colorado tick fever.
    Ehrlichiosis.
    Heartland virus (HRTV) disease*
    Lyme disease*
    Powassan virus
    Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever
    and more items…•Jun 27, 2019

    TB diseases are very debilitating and LONG term when the majority of us have been misdiagnosed for DECADES since the symptoms overlap with 300 other illnesses/symptoms.

    then idsa, infectious disease society of america, drs. UNDERTREAT us treating up to 4 wks. only and “you’re cured” mentality, which is BS.

    thank you from the millions of TB patients in the usa who have never been diagnosed or misdiagnosed like me for 35 yrs. by 40-50 drs.

    betty gordon,
    ames, iowa

  5. Tammy M.

    I don’t understand. What is happening in April? I realize there will be changes but other than that I don’t get what’s changing

  6. Carmen R.

    Modernizing and changing standards of evaluating disabilities and eligibility and who gets monitory assistance needs to be changed.
    I have a diagnostic disability that is real, but I don’t meet the workforce criteria, so I must struggle daily physically, mentally, and with no financial assistance, but this may help people in the future.

  7. Gretchen K.

    S.S Disability is a mystery to me. You do not stress just what a disability really is! we would like your definition of a disability in black and white and the Payment offered.
    Social Security hasn’t been fair over the years.

  8. Catherine K.

    The unskilled worker jobs have been moved mainly out of the country. You now have third and fourth generation drug addicts having children. Their brains don’t function correctly. problem solving skills and temperaments are sorely lacking making their being in the workforce dangerous. There needs to be serious advances declaring these people as disabled.

    • Raquel V.

      We need a UBI. In a few yrs, that pretty girl or cute guy you flirt with at Starbucks while they make your latte will be replaced by a robot that won’t complain about needing to make 30 bucks an hour plus a slue of benefits because their rent just got jacked up…

  9. Denise

    I have been on SSI since 1986 . I am now going to be 67 with several medications. I also have physical problems along with my depression. And I am scared of losing my benefits.

  10. Carol L.

    What was the research used to make this determination?

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