Employment Patterns of SSI-First Awardees Who Enter SSDI After Achieving Disability-Insured Status

2021 ◽  
pp. 104420732110222
Author(s):  
Jessica Laird ◽  
Yonatan Ben-Shalom ◽  
Priyanka Anand
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Dropping Out ◽  
First Year ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Ability To Work ◽  
Employment Patterns ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Disability

This article uses administrative data from the Social Security Administration to explore the employment patterns and characteristics of individuals awarded Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits between 2001 and 2009 who later became disability insured and qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). While these individuals are a small portion of all SSI and SSDI beneficiaries, they are particularly interesting because they demonstrate a desire and ability to work despite the health conditions that make them eligible for disability benefits. On average, 2.3% of SSI-first awardees enter SSDI after they become disability insured within 5 years of their SSI award. These SSI awardees are younger than other SSI awardees and are more likely to achieve work-related milestones during the 5 years after SSI award. Although awardees in this group show signs of an ability to work, they gradually start dropping out of the labor force starting 5 months before SSDI benefits begin and drop out in greater numbers through the first year of SSDI benefits. This suggests that some of them may work enough to achieve disability-insured status but stop when they enter SSDI.

Social Security Disability Application Experiences of People With Multiple Sclerosis in the United States

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 131-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa I. Iezzoni ◽  
Long Ngo ◽  
R. Philip Kinkel
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Disability Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Assistance ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
The Social ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Social Security Disability

Studies suggest that more than half of working-age Americans with multiple sclerosis (MS) are unemployed because of their health. Many turn to public disability insurance for income support, applying through the Social Security Administration for either Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), which provides benefits to formerly employed people, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which supports impoverished individuals. Anecdotal reports suggest that many patients with MS face considerable problems when applying for federal disability benefits. To gather more systematic information about these experiences, we surveyed 983 working-age people with MS nationwide from May through November 2005. Most (60.2%) were unemployed; 36.4% had federal disability insurance, with 27.8% having SSDI alone. Almost one third (31.3%) had their initial SSDI application denied, and 31.9% used legal assistance when applying for this benefit. Although the time elapsed between SSDI application and approval was <12 months for 60.4% of applicants, 12–23 months passed for 19.8% and 24+ months for another 19.8%. Among people without SSDI, 15.4% had applied for this benefit at some time. Failure to meet disability criteria caused 60.3% of rejections, and inadequate documentation contributed to 32.1%. Neurologists must fully document the breadth of MS-related impairments in their patients' disability applications.

Heckler v. Campbell and the Grid: Are Disability Claimants Entitled to Examples of Suitable Jobs?

1984 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 501-515
Author(s):  
Mark S. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
Disability Claim ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
Case Basis

AbstractThe Social Security Administration promulgated the medical-vocational guidelines (the grid) in 1978 in order to improve consistency and efficiency in disability claim adjudications. The grid takes administrative notice of the availability of jobs suited to claimants’ capabilities, eliminating the need to make such a determination on a case-by-case basis.In Heckler v. Campbell, the Supreme Court held that the grid is valid and that the Secretary of Health and Human Services cannot be required to give specific examples of jobs available in the national economy. In so doing, the Court reversed the Second Circuit, which had required the Secretary to give claimants examples of jobs suited to their individual characteristics to assure them adequate notice of the issues involved in their hearings.This Case Comment contends that the Supreme Court misperceived the Second Circuit's purpose in requiring the Secretary to provide specific examples of available jobs. Nonetheless, the Comment argues that the Supreme Court decision does not foreclose requiring such examples to assure adequate notice and to aid in resolving adjudicative factual issues. This Comment concludes that such a requirement would improve the efficiency, accuracy and consistency of Social Security disability determinations.

scholarly journals The Postretirement Well-Being of Workers With Disabilities

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Yanyuan Wu ◽  
Jody Schimmel Hyde
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Retirement Benefits ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
Better Than

Older workers who develop significant limitations in health or functioning face declines in income and consumption and an increased likelihood of poverty in the years prior to retirement. We assess the extent to which those differences persist after reaching retirement age. We use the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) linked to Social Security Administration (SSA) records to compare the postretirement financial well-being of workers who experienced disability onset during their working years with those who did not, based on their claiming behavior for Social Security disability and retirement benefits. We find that even after full retirement age, gaps that emerged prior to retirement persist; those who experienced disability prior to retirement had lower incomes, were more likely to be in poverty, and had significantly lower wealth. Workers with disabilities who claimed Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) fared better than those who were rejected for such benefits, yet both groups were worse off than those who delayed claiming benefits until they were eligible for Social Security Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) benefits. Our findings indicate that any changes to the Social Security benefit structure must be mindful of the short- and longer term implications for already-vulnerable groups of workers.

Implementation and impacts of the Substantial Gainful Activity Project demonstration in Minnesota

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Kehn ◽  
Todd Honeycutt
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Employment Outcomes ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Client Engagement ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Outcomes Evaluation ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
Staff Experiences

BACKGROUND: In 2015, the state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency in Minnesota was one of two agencies that implemented the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) Project demonstration, whose innovations were designed to improve employment outcomes of nonblind VR clients receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. OBJECTIVE: To present findings on the implementation experiences and the impacts the innovations had on service and employment outcomes. METHODS: The evaluation involved qualitative and quantitative methods from an office-level randomization design. Using interview and administrative data, we assessed implementation and impacts on service pacing, client engagement, and employment. RESULTS: Clients at treatment sites experienced shorter times for developing an individualized plan for employment and were less likely to drop out of services early, but the intervention had no impacts on employment or earnings. As a result of the intervention, agency leadership and staff changed their perceptions of the initial plan for employment, the value of site-based job placement staff, and Social Security Administration benefits knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: The SGA Project innovations generated positive impacts on key service delivery and client outcomes. Evaluation findings and staff experiences in implementing the innovations suggest a number of implications for other VR agencies interested in adopting features of the SGA Project innovations.

scholarly journals Identifying Work Capacity and Promoting Work: A Strategy for Modernizing the SSDI Program

2019 ◽  
Vol 686 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Maestas
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Work Capacity ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Capacity Measurement ◽  
Work Related ◽  
The Social ◽  
Remaining Capacity ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
New System

The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, which provides income support to individuals who become unable to work because of a disability, has not been substantially reformed since the 1980s, despite sweeping changes in health, medical technology, and the functional requirements of jobs. I review how the SSDI program works, its history in terms of caseloads and reforms, and findings from the research evidence that offer lessons for the future. I then propose two interlocking reforms that would modernize the core functions of the program. The first is to improve SSDI’s process for determining whether an applicant has remaining capacity to work by replacing the outdated medical-vocational “grid” with a new system of individual work capacity measurement. Second, I propose the introduction of partial disability benefits, which would make use of the new system for measuring work capacity and allow beneficiaries to combine benefit receipt with work. Partial benefits could be paired with a generalized benefit offset to further encourage work by beneficiaries, and the Social Security Administration’s complex array of work-related rules could be eliminated.

scholarly journals Automatic health record review to help prioritize gravely ill Social Security disability applicants

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Abbott ◽  
Yen-Yi Ho ◽  
Jennifer Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
False Positives ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Health Records ◽  
The Social ◽  
Form Field ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
Record Review

Abstract Objective: Every year, thousands of patients die waiting for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. Some qualify for expedited service under the Compassionate Allowance (CAL) initiative, but CAL software focuses exclusively on information from a single form field. This paper describes the development of a supplemental process for identifying some overlooked but gravely ill applicants, through automatic annotation of health records accompanying new claims. We explore improved prioritization instead of fully autonomous claims approval. Materials and Methods: We developed a sample of claims containing medical records at the moment of arrival in a single office. A series of tools annotated both patient records and public Web page descriptions of CAL medical conditions. We trained random forests to identify CAL patients and validated each model with 10-fold cross validation. Results: Our main model, a general CAL classifier, had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.915. Combining this classifier with existing software improved sensitivity from 0.960 to 0.994, detecting every deceased patient, but reducing positive predictive value to 0.216. Discussion: True positive CAL identification is a priority, given CAL patient mortality. Mere prioritization of the false positives would not create a meaningful burden in terms of manual review. Death certificate data suggest the presence of truly ill patients among putative false positives. Conclusion: To a limited extent, it is possible to identify gravely ill Social Security disability applicants by analyzing annotations of unstructured electronic health records, and the level of identification is sufficient to be useful in prioritizing case reviews.

Supporting Work Effort of SSDI Beneficiaries

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Chambless ◽  
George Julnes ◽  
Sara T. McCormick ◽  
Anne Reither
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Work Effort ◽  
Policy Environments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cash Benefits ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
Service Agencies

Few SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) beneficiaries in the United States ever increase earnings to the point of leaving SSDI, a source of growing concern both because of the costs of the program and because some beneficiaries can feel trapped in relative poverty by the need to retain SSDI benefits. One barrier to exit is the “cash cliff,” the abrupt loss of monthly benefits once earnings rise beyond the limits for eligibility. A four-state random assignment policy experiment was funded by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to explore implementation of a gradual reduction of cash benefits as earnings rise (i.e., the “benefit offset”). The project in Utah, one of the four states, found positive impacts of the policy on employment outcomes for certain groups of participants. More important, however, were the lessons learned in Utah for implementing policy initiatives with vulnerable populations such as those with disabilities. These lessons learned are in the areas of partnering among service agencies, enhancing communication, and implementing policy innovations in complex policy environments.

WELFARE AND THE CHILDREN'S BUREAU

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-359
Author(s):  
PHILIP S. BARBA
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Social Security ◽  
First Year ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Department Of Labor ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
The Social ◽  
Department Of Commerce

IN THE fifty-first year of its existence, the Children's Bureau moves to a new administrative home. A completely new home in the sense that it is a new administrative house in the geography of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Initially, the Bureau was in the Department of Commerce and a year later in the Department of Labor, where the Bureau Chief reported directly to the Secretary. From 1946 until now, the Bureau was located in the Social Security Administration of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Chief reported to the Commissioner of the Agency. In the new Welfare Agency the Chief of the Children's Bureau will officially report to the Welfare Commissioner, who in turn will report to the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

How the COVID-19 pandemic could reduce near-retirees' Social Security benefits

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Andrew G. Biggs
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Disability Insurance ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
Social Security Benefit ◽  
Social Security Administration ◽  
Retirement Benefits ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Disability ◽  
Social Security Benefits

AbstractA quirk in the Social Security benefit formula interacting with the sharp economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic could cause certain groups of near-retirees to suffer significant and permanent reductions to their Social Security retirement benefits. A sudden decline in the Social Security Administration (SSA)'s measure of economywide average wages in the year a worker turns 60 causes the Social Security benefit formula to devalue all the worker's earnings prior to age 60, resulting in a lower measure of career-average earnings and a lower benefit in retirement. A middle-income worker aged 60 in 2020 could receive an annual Social Security benefit reduction of around 9%, with losses through retirement approaching $46,000. Individuals becoming eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits would be subject to similar reductions in percentage terms. Several methods are discussed to reduce or eliminate the likelihood of similar benefit ‘notches’ occurring in the future.

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