Aug 17, 2011

Answer To Quiz

     People had trouble with this one!

     Question: Mr. A drives while intoxicated. He causes a terrible car crash which kills the driver of another vehicle. Mr. A is convicted of vehicular homicide, a felony under state law. He is sentenced to two years in prison. He serves those two years in prison. After he leaves prison, Mr. A files a claim for Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) and SSI (SSI) since in the same car crash Mr. A was badly and permanently injured. He has no serious health problems other than those related to the car crash. He has no income or resources. Mr. A is potentially eligible for:
     Possible answers:
DIB only
SSI only
Both DIB and SSI
Neither DIB nor SSI

The answer is SSI only. 42 U.S.C. §423(d)(6) provides that:
Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, any physical or mental impairment which arises in connection with the commission by an individual (after the date of the enactment of this paragraph) of an offense which constitutes a felony under applicable law and for which such individual is subsequently convicted, or which is aggravated in connection with such an offense (but only to the extent so aggravated), shall not be considered in determining whether an individual is under a disability.
There is no parallel provision in the statute defining disability for purposes of SSI.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would like to see a POMS reference to that....

Anonymous said...

Here's the POMS:

DI 10105.100 Permanent Disregard of Impairments Incurred or Conditions Aggravated in the Commission of a Felony

A. Policy

Any physical or mental impairment(s) arising or aggravated (but only to the extent of the aggravation) in connection with the commission of a felony is to be permanently disregarded for all disability program purposes. (These restrictions do not apply to title XVI cases.)

Anonymous said...

Was this distinction intentional or an oversight? Discuss/

Anonymous said...

oversight...if anything, the system should allow for Title II benefits (the claimant paid in), while disallowing Title XVI (welfare)

Anonymous said...

This is basically theoretical only--we are going to take and process a concurrent claim because no one is going to investigate and determine the felony-caused impairment. That is the reality.

Anonymous said...

Agreed with 5:44, a claim would be taken and dumped into the system.
The single "felony injury" is a textbook example, while in reality (plus any visit to an attorney or other helper's office) would present a more complex picture. At a minimum, the reduced physical capacity from the physical injury would lead to feelings of "depression."
Once you get two medical diagnoses, it is not possible for the examiner or ALJ to neatly divide them into two entirely separate piles, and there is the even more complex third pile of the interaction of the two. Anyone that says that they can analyses them separately is just playing games with the truth.