From Pamela Herd writing on Substack:
... SNAP [commonly known as Food Stamps] is a critical safety valve for people trying to access Social Security Disability programs — for which delays in benefit receipt can extend into years. The expansion in work requirements for this age group [as part of the debt limit extension bill just agreed to by the President and the Speaker of the House] seems innocuous, but they are highly consequential. Even those who dislike work requirements don’t fully understand the ramifications. ...
But wait! Aren’t disabled people excluded from the work requirements?
Yes, but this is where administrative burdens matter. In order to prove you are disabled, you must become eligible for Social Security Disability, either Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. But this process takes significant amounts of effort and time. ...
The net result is that it can take years to prove disability in order to access either SSDI or SSI, as well as now prove that you can’t meet the work requirements for SNAP.
And the wait times have been steadily increasing. Between 2014 and 2022, average wait times rose from 106 days to 183 days. The average beneficiary now waits six months to access their benefit, and *prove* their disability. ...
5 comments:
Not exactly the way the article appears. I was on SNAP and when they wanted me to do the work requirement all it took was a note from my doctor to get out of that, and on to SSI (automatically). I was then told to apply for SSDI and I did that and received benefits after one appeal. No one will make you work when a doctor says you cannot just to get SNAP. The article is misleading, and as allows anti-Republican.
@4:48
I think you are correct to point out that the burden to meet the work requirement has remained the same -- the only change is the work requirement now applies to older childless persons aged 50 to 54. But the Republicans wanted and still want more restrictive work requirements for both SNAP and Medicaid, so I'm not sure its fair to say the article is misleading about Republican's preferred policy.
Also as a practical matter, SNAP work requirements are not administered or decided the same way in every state, or even consistently within the same state. It is not always as simple as getting a doctor note.
I think you don’t know what you’re talking about. I promise you that no one put you on SSI “automatically” just because you showed someone at the welfare office a letter from your doctor.
This was 20 some odd years ago, and in Massachusetts. The work requirement was for unpaid work to get the benefits. After a certain amount of time on SNAP I was required to participate. I had already stopped working (I couldn’t work anymore) and that’s why I was in this situation. The doctor had treated me for past disability where I was out of work a few months, but this was much worse and he knew I could not work so the letter got me out of the work requirement and then they called me a few days later and told me that I had cash benefits as well and that this was SSI. After a few months they contacted me again and said I must apply for SSDI and that their payments would be more if approved. It was not easy to get approved and I secured benefits on a single appeal. That is what happened to me, and I am still unable to work.
I don’t think most states would put you into these no paid positions if you had a doctor saying that you cannot and should not attempt to work, but I really don’t know, I just know what happened to me.
@4:48
The speed of your award is absolutely not the norm.
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