A state agency that handles Social Security disability claims has asked Ohio’s congressional delegation to back a proposal that would allow terminally ill patients to receive payments quickly.
The seven-member Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission [a state Disability Determination Service or DDS] , which handled 169,392 disability claims in Ohio last year, endorsed the bill proposed by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and called for his Ohio colleagues on Capitol Hill to support the measure, which would waive a five-month waiting period for such patients. ...
The five-month wait reflects a standard back-to-work benchmark and is meant to avoid paying benefits to those who don’t have a long-term disability, U.S. Social Security Administration spokeswoman Carmen Moreno said Friday.
Carmen Moreno knows so little that she should not be a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration. "A standard back-to-work benchmark?" Give me a break. Nobody in the world other than the U.S. Social Security Administration has a five month waiting period for disability benefits. The statute already requires that disability must last at least a year. That excludes shorter term disabilities. The only reason for the five month waiting period is to save money.
As I recall the five month waiting period made an assumption that employers provided short term disability payments or sick pay during the five month waiting period. Of course, in reality, most employers provide no short term disability insurance or even healht insurance anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is correct, and you owe Ms. Moreno an apology.
ReplyDeleteIf you've ever been quoted in a newspaper, or seen a newspaper story about something you know something about, you've no doubt noticed that newspaper reporters don't have the time to really understand what they're writing about, and their "quotes" are usually completely out of context.
Although it might have been expressed better, the 5-month waiting period has been a part of Social Security disability benefits from their beginning. And its rationale was that the larger employers (back when we had unions) paid disability for 6 months. The 5-month waiting period was to prevent double compensation. In the 6th month, the worker was eligible for Social Security disability payments, but it was paid after the month, so the first check was received just as the employer's plan was ending.