May 10, 2016

Proposed Regs On Unsuccessful Work Attempts And Expedited Reinstatement

     From a notice to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow (footnotes omitted):
... Under our current rules , we evaluate the success of a work attempt by its duration. We look at work attempts lasting less than 3 months and those lasting between 3 and 6 months. We consider work of 3 months or less to be a UWA [Unsuccessful Work Attempt] if the claimant or beneficiary stopped working or reduced the work and earnings below the SGA [Substantial Gainful Activity] earnings level because of the claimant or beneficiary’s impairment, or because of the removal of special conditions which took into account the claimant or beneficiary’ s impairment and permitted the claimant or beneficiary to work. In contrast, t o qualify as a UWA, we require the work attempt to last between 3 and 6 months to meet the same conditions for work attempts lasting 3 months or less and to also meet several additional conditions. The claimant or beneficiary must also have : (1) been frequently absent from work because of his or her impairment, (2) performed the work unsatisfactorily because of his or her impairment, (3) worked during a period of temporary remission of his or her impairment, or (4) worked under special conditions essential to his or her performance and those conditions were removed.
We propose to revise 20 CFR 404.1574(c), 404.1575(d), 416.974(c), and 416.975(d) to remove the additional conditions that we use when evaluating a work attempt in employment or self-employment that last s between 3 and 6 months . We propose to use the current 3-month standards for all work attempts that are 6 months or less. This change would apply to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and SSI claimants and beneficiaries....
Currently, our regulations state that individuals are not eligible for EXR [Expedited Reinstatement] if they perform SGA during the month in which they apply for EXR . ... 
We propose to revise 20 CFR 404.1592c and 416.999a to allow previously entitled individuals to request EXR in the same month they stop performing SGA. ...
     Note that this is only a proposal. The public will be able to comment on it. Social Security must consider the comments. This is unlikely to become final until some time next year.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When SSA makes a sensible policy proposal that simplifies the rules without increasing hardships on claimants they deserve a salute. Good job on this one.

Lindav said...

You are right Anon 6:09. This will help the most deserving people. A typical example would be someone who had cancer. Returned to work. Then a few months later their cancer returned. It will allow them to be found disabled back to when they were first diagnosed