The House Ways and Means Committee has announced that a hearing will be held on Thursday, July 9 at 10:00 a.m. on promoting work opportunities for Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries.
I wonder what it would come to if someone counted up the number of hearings this Committee or its Social Security Subcommittee has held on this topic over the decades. I bet it would average at least one a year for the last 50 years.
The committee should seriously explore SSA's own terrible track record for reasonably accommodating employees with disabilities. A huge class action case brought by SSA employees with disabilities, which took several years, was only resolved earlier this year. However, little, if any, change has actually occurred in the field and hearing offices. There continue to be EEO complaints filed by SSA employees with disabilities who suddenly find themselves unfairly pushed into a corner by Agency managers hell bent on targeting those who have been able to obtain reasonable accommodations. The dysfunctional managerial culture within the Agency is to do what ever it takes, including prohibited personnel practices, to get rid of said employees as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the old definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. First the belief was that state VR could rehabilitate DI recipients. When that didn't work, the Ticket to Work law added employment networks, and by and large EN successes are relatively rare. To date, the benefit offset tests have not shown any promise. Now the flavor of the month is early intervention, which is sure to be another flop. Interestingly, early intervention is the work of same crew of researchers who once pushed the Ticket program as the next great thing. Won't these guys ever learn that you have to be genuinely limited in order to get paid. The slackers that Rand Paul talks about are few and far in between.
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