As many as 500,000 Americans could be barred from receiving Social Security benefits after President Donald Trump‘s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was sent a proposal over the weekend by the Social Security Administration, which if similar to a version leaked earlier this year, would make it harder for older workers to receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.
The leaked proposal, as described by The Wall Street Journal, would revise eligibility for disability benefits based on age, education and work experience, which determined the eligibility of about 500,000 people in 2017, based on the most recent data available. Currently, more than 8 million people receive disability payments from the Social Security Administration.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The proposal argues that it will address the major shifts in the economic and demographic makeup of Americans over the past 40 years, as people are better educated and living longer than when the criteria were established in 1978. This is, in part due to a shift in the job market, as fewer people work demanding physical jobs in mines and factories, instead trading those workplaces for locations such as offices, schools, stores and hospitals. All this, plus the development of technology over the years, could provide new options for people who have disabilities, the proposal argues.
“Evidence shows that in the modern economy the vocational impacts of age, education and work experience are markedly different from what they were when we published the current vocational regulations,” according to the leaked proposal dated Oct. 18, as per The Wall Street Journal. If approved, this would mark the first major overhaul in how age, education and experience are considered in evaluating disability since 1978 — less than two decades after disabled American workers began receiving benefits in 1956.
Last month, the Trump administration finalized a regulation that could make it more difficult for people applying for disability benefits to appeal denials, as the Social Security Administration is now permitted to use its own lawyers in appeal hearings instead of more independent administrative law judges. After the passage, Democrats asked that President-elect Joe Biden’s administration reverse the policy when he is sworn in next month, as the rule “puts unqualified agency staff in control of deciding appeals hearings.”
“We have strong concerns that there may be last-minute roll-backs of health, safety, and environmental protections by the outgoing Trump administration,” Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a letter last month to OMB Director Russell T. Vought. “We are concerned that these ‘midnight rules’ may be rushed through without providing Congress adequate time to review these rules, as required by law.”
