From Work Overpayments Among New Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries, a just released study by Denise Hoffman, Monica Farid, Serge Lukashanets, Michael T. Anderson, and John T. Jones:
This paper studies the experiences of the 2008 cohort of first-time Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries who were at risk of overpayment because they engaged in substantial gainful activity (SGA) after completing the trial work period and grace period (work incentives allowing beneficiaries to test work). ...
The paper found the following:
- Among a sample of 31,520 2008 first-time Social Security Disability Insurance awardees at risk of a work-related overpayment, 82 percent (25,846) were overpaid in the first 10 years after award.
- Among those overpaid within 10 years of award, half of all overpayments began in the first four years after award.
- Nearly all overpayments (89 percent) began in the first month of SGA after exhausting trial work period and grace period months. ...
18 comments:
How many of the 82 percent didn't timely report their work? How many did and SSA didn't take timely action?
So not only does SSA provide poor service to the public but it also routinely makes overpayments. Wow. It would be great if someone would make necessary wholesale changes at SSA so these things do not continue unabated.
According to this blog and most of the people who post remarks, everyone who gets Social Security Disability is too sick to work…so how could this be possible?
This study looked at the 4% of DIB beneficiaries who had SGA after the trial work and grace periods. 45% of recipients would like to work, and 28% earned at least $1,000 in at least 1 of the first 10 years of benefits. But only 4% earned over the threshold for SGA ($1,350 in 2022) in any month in the first 10 years after the grace period. So some work is getting done, but most earn 0 or very little.
The difference in how we coddle SSI recipients for overpayments and work vs. how we punish Disability recipients for overpayments and work is infuriating.
Especially considering how they stack disability appointments on Claims Specialists so thick that nobody really takes the time to hammer in reporting responsibilities. Yes, it's on the papers. No, it's written terribly. No, that's not a good reason to blame the claimant.
I would think that there would almost always be an overpayment. The work after the EPE was over would have to be verified by the employer and the claimant Due process would have to be given. Subsidy and IIRWE would have to be ruled out
8:34
Social Security disability means being unable to work at the Substantial Gainful Activity level. It does not mean, and no who understands the program believes, it means that the person is "too sick to work" at all. So, many people who receive disability do try to work at some point. There is no inconsistency with being "disabled" under the law.
The point of the article is that when a person works, the way the SSA deals with their earnings is both inefficient and confusing. Nothing about a Trial Work Period is intuitive and the actual reporting of the earrings is not as automated as it could and should be.
And, yes, too many of the people who collect benefits "forget" to report them and when caught, ofter several years later, claim that they "thought" that since taxes were being collected for FICA, that the SSA was being notified directly. This is a ridiculous excuse but, in fact, there is no reason that a coordinated response;onse between IRS and the SSA couldn't accomplish this is real time. And that would allow for quicker responses by the SSA and avoid many of the overpayments in the first place.
I think the entire concept of "Ticket to Work" and "Trial Work" is based upon the myth that a large percentage on disability could "really work" if they just had more "willpower." But, IF you really want people to TRY to work and EVENTUALLY get off of disability, you need to reduce the risk. You need to at least make it easier to get back on, if and when things get worse again. For those who have been through the process, the hell you went through to get disability in the first place...You're not gonna risk having to go through that again. You may THINK you have gotten better, that you MIGHT be able to work. But, it might take months for you to really know what you really can do, on a persistent basis. Maybe the accommodations an employer is willing to make in the beginning, become strained as time progresses. Petty jealousy from other employees is a real concern...as in "Why does this person get special treatment?" But, those accommodations may be what enables someone to work. Extra, or longer breaks, more days off, use of FMLA, etc., all effect other employees. They often become resentful of someone they PERCEIVE as not "pulling their weight." SGA for x amount of time is just a number. Achieving it for a few months is not a real indicator of long term ability to work and employability. Let me give you an actual example... I was hired by a union company, with a probation period. I didn't miss a minute, and performed my job "satisfactorily" throughout the probation period. However, the Supervisor let me go on the last day of the probation period. Why? Because, he didn't think I could perform the job at the level the job required AND SUSTAIN it. He had seen how much of a struggle it was for me to do the job...This was BEFORE I was diagnosed with my disabling condition (which I had been seeing doctors for for 8 years at that time). This was 20 years before I applied for SSDI.
Having said that...I think a lot of the sentiment about this can be seen (or read into) 12:01 PM's cooment... It's not about concern for or about a person's long term ability to work...It's about saving SSA money and getting "people off the rolls." If that's wahat you want, LOWER THE RISK!
EXR. Expedited reinstatements for those who are terminated due to work who go below SGA later.
@8:34
"Work" has a very specific meaning in the context of Social Security disability. Plenty of disabled folks can engage in work activity a few hours a week, maybe even a few hours per day. But if that activity cannot be sustained, they are still disabled.
The EEO (Earnings Enforcement Operation) automates earnings vs OASDI benefits and computes benefit decreases resulting in incorrect payments (IPs) and/or overpayments (DPOs). The AERO program automates computing benefit increases due based on earnings changes resulting in underpayments (PMAs). However, Disability benefit computations generally require additional manual review due to their complexity. It's not that it cannot be done but given the multiple automation opportunities, automating disability processing almost always costs more and takes longer to implement while processing relatively fewer cases, so the return on IT investment is generally negative or takes decades to break even. It all comes back to the budget, manpower, experienced employees available (and imho, those annual SES accomplishments needed to justify their large bonuses).
Very few disabled beneficiaries work straight thru the TWP and then continue on to use up their 36 months without a break. Most disabled people trying to work try more than once to see if they can handle it. So they use up the TWP, and part of the 36 months. Then they try again later, not knowing how little time is left of their work incentives. SSA does not tell people in a clear fashion what happens or happened to their work incentives. You could have used your TWP 5 years ago. Few SSA staff understood the work incentives when I retired 10 years ago. I imagine hardly anyone does now. I once considered returning to work for SSA part time, but their part time schedule is too many hours and not flexible. So they lost me, a TE who understands the work incentives for both SSA & SSI.
I have a family member that has been on SSDI for several years. She is profoundly deaf, so she will always meet the listing. She's accepted a great job that will provide her ASL interpreters (a big issue that made working hard). What is the best way for her to stop her benefits? She is not interested in the TWP because she signed a three-year contract. She just wants her benefits to stop.
The best option is to report her work. Use the trial work period and then stop using her benefits once her twp is over.
We are at supposed to just suspend disability benefits and if she withdraws her claim that would be a horrible mistake.
The agency isn’t going to stop benefits timely. You have to understand the rules and do what’s to your advantage. In this case, use the twp and then sit on the benefits until the agency eventually stops them. Report the earnings timely, request receipts for turning in pay stubs and protect yourself with documentation.
She should report the work, hold the money from her benefits for when the overpayment letter comes. You never know what's going to happen in the next 3 years, she could need her benefits again. She gets the TWP whether she wants it or not and it will reduce the inevitable overpayment.
Thank you for the replies 4:22 and 11:58. We appreciate the advice. We will report the work and hold the money in a separate account until we hear from SSA :)
I couldn’t agree more. The lack of training/proficiency of what can be an extremely complex workload is very unfortunately, the best kept secret in the agency. Before I retired several years ago, I spoke to a representative in Baltimore who had processed a $24,000+ overpayment for a disabled working claimant without regard to work incentives which would have reduced his work to below SGA. The work incentives were clearly documented on the claimants work activity report. When I asked the claims specialist if he had considered the work incentives, his reply was that he was retiring in six months and they “stuck” him in the work CDR unit for his last 6 months without “much” training. Even very experienced employees in the local office and in the payment centers routinely processed incorrect decisions for a variety of reasons - incompetence even if trained, employee misinterpretation and misapplication of regulations, lack of training and/or a program with rules and regulations so complicated that even conscientious trained employees struggle to apply them correctly - let alone the claimants. I shudder to think, just as I did when I reopened incorrect decisions on hundreds of these cases over the years, of the unfathomable number of disabled beneficiaries who are or will be repaying incorrect overpayments years into the future. I could go on and on but I won’t - suffice to say this is the best intentioned and worst administered by SSA - and the claimants pay a very high price.
A few things are, well, UNCLEAR. Is the SGA based upon how much you EARN in a month? Or how much you are paid? Does it include Holiday pay? Pay periods are rarely monthly. Weekly and biweekly are the most common. Some months you get a 5th weekly or 3rd biweekly payment. Clearly, you didn't EARN 6 weeks of pay in a 30-31 day period, but, you can be PAID for a 42 day period in a month. Even February in a leap year that begins on pay day! How does SSA handle this? If you worked only 20 hours a week at $11.50 an hour, this would be an issue with biweekly payments. Weekly payments would also be an issue at 20 hours a week at only $13.50 an hour. McDonald's offers more than that!
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