SSAB Wants BOND Ended

     From the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) (footnote omitted):

This paper is an assessment of merits of the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Benefit Offset National Demonstration’s (BOND) ability to address the following: 1) will an offset incentivize more work in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries, and 2) what will be the amount of induced entry from the change in work incentives? 

The Social Security Advisory Board finds that the BOND, as it has been implemented, is not adequate to answer these questions. In our view, BOND is a victim of both faulty conceptualization and implementation. Congress owes it to the taxpayers to call a halt to further spending on this project. The questions that were the basis for Congress originally requesting the demonstration should still be addressed, albeit more efficiently. ... 

While Congress requested a demonstration of variations in the benefit offset amount, the demonstration as implemented is testing the specific benefit reduction of $1 for every $2 earned. This demonstration, even if completed, will not yield results that have tested which ratio of benefit reduction will have the most work incentivizing results. The “2 for 1” amount would help align the SSDI and SSI work incentives but this demonstration will not further our knowledge of which particular ratio is most appropriate.... 

To be clear, we are advocating that this demonstration project be terminated because it is both without merit and costly. In our view, BOND is a victim of both faulty conceptualization and implementation - Congress owes it to the taxpayers to call a halt to further spending on this demonstration project