From the Washington Post:
The Trump administration is preparing a plan that will make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security disability payments, part of an overhaul of the federal safety net for poor, older and disabled people that could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits, according to people familiar with the plans.
Currently, the Social Security Administration evaluates disability claims by considering age, work experience and education to determine if a person can adjust to other types of work. Older applicants, typically over 50, have a better chance of qualifying because age is treated as a limitation in adapting to many jobs.
But now officials are considering eliminating age as a factor entirely or raising the threshold to age 60, according to three people familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions. They also plan to modernize labor market data used to judge whether claimants can work, replacing an outdated jobs database that includes obsolete occupations like nut sorters and telephone quotation clerks, following a Washington Post investigation in 2022. …
“We felt that so many more jobs are now available to disabled people,” said Mark Warshawsky, who led work on the earlier proposed rule as the SSA’s deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy during the first Trump administration. “The nature of work has changed.”
Warshawsky, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, predicted that while the new rule under consideration would allow the agency to turn away more older people, more people with mental disabilities are likely to be approved. …
According to two former officials, starting next year the agency plans to develop a computer-generated database using the modern jobs data to determine which jobs, if any, someone seeking benefits could perform. Disability advocates say they worry that the database will be programmed to come up with a vast array of jobs, particularly if advancing age is no longer a limiting factor, and will end up denying benefits to tens of thousands of claimants every year. …
As I’ve said recently, doing anything like this would be disastrous for its authors. The people planning this have no idea how radical it is.
Lets be real… by the time this could get anywhere near implementation this clown show administration will be gone and this will get scuttled by whoever comes next.
ReplyDeleteWe can all only hope!
DeleteThe Trump administration is going back to the old playbook.
ReplyDeleteThey are trying every play on the call sheet.
Trump, House Republican Cuts to SSI Would Harm Children With Disabilities
SEPTEMBER 18, 2017
President Trump and House Republicans have proposed cutting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for poor children with disabilities, which would harm some of America’s most vulnerable children and their families. The Trump proposal would cut SSI by more than $8 billion over the next decade, shrinking benefits for roughly a quarter of a million children with disabilities by between 38 and 66 percent. It would also increase SSI’s administrative costs and improper payments.
SSI provides monthly benefits to low-income seniors and people with disabilities, including children; it is the only federal income support targeted to families caring for children with disabilities and reaches only the lowest-income and most severely impaired children.[1] These children live with conditions such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, and blindness. Their families face higher costs, more demands on their time, and more insecurity than other families. About 1.2 million children with disabilities receive SSI benefits averaging $650 a month. Their families, roughly one-third of whom live below the poverty line, use their benefits for basic necessities like food and housing as well as to cover disability-related expenses like therapies or home modifications, which health insurance often doesn’t cover.
Both the Trump budget and the House Budget Committee’s 2018 budget resolution cut children’s SSI benefits on a sliding scale if another member of the family also receives SSI. The Trump proposal would cut the first affected child’s benefit by 38 percent, the second child’s by 47 percent, and any additional children’s benefits by progressively larger amounts. These cuts would hurt extremely vulnerable families, pushing many into — or deeper into — poverty.[2] Families caring for children with disabilities, especially multiple children with disabilities, face severe hardships and often struggle to meet basic needs like rent, food, and health care; these cuts would make it even harder for them to make ends meet.
What jobs? Did anybody see this months jobs report? 👀
ReplyDelete“We felt that so many more jobs are now available to disabled people,” said Mark Warshawsky
One thing I said and I gave my word -- we're not going to hurt anybody on Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security," Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. Congress is prohibited from touching Social Security's benefit structure or revenue mechanisms in a reconciliation bill.
ReplyDeleteTrump went on to say "we're doing great on Social Security" and that "we're going to protect it."
Protecting Social Security is a common refrain for Trump, who promised to protect the federal program on the campaign trail and has reiterated that message through his second term as president -- even as his administration has sought cuts for other federal programs and agencies.
I've been watching him, he never said Social Security Disability ONCE that I seen. He'll protect old-age though, and when most hear "Social Security" they think retirement. SSI, they want to keep illegal's off of (dunno how that works). But ya... I've been listening and he doesn't differentiate between old-age and disability.
DeleteNo Charles, they do know. Warshawsky has claimed, for years, that too many people receive disability benefits and he has made it his life's work to make it harder to be found disabled.
ReplyDeleteDon't be naive, they absolutely know. This is a core goal of Project 2025 and a step on the way to full privatization which they've wanted for 75 years.
ReplyDeleteHealthwise, being 60 in 2025 is much better than being 60 in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, or 2020. It should not be surprising that the disability standards change to mirror those improvements. Think back to your own parents, grandparents, and other family members and friends as they aged.
ReplyDeleteAge is not a factor because of health it is a factor in determining whether a person can adapt to work. The Social Security Act provides that it must considered, in addition to medical related limitations, education, and past work experience.
DeleteJobwise, there are a greater variety of jobs with a greater variety of conditions that allow people to adapt to work conditions available to those older than 60 than in prior years. Laws provide for reasonable accommodations and procedures to follow in cases of age discrimination. All this must be considered in relation to establish disability. Factors such as unwillingness to work a job a person is able to do because of non-medical and non-physical personal issues or choices do not qualify a person as disabled. If a disabling factor is a mental one, then it is likely a representative payee is needed to handle the money paid to that person with a combination of disabling conditions.
DeleteNot sure who is going to hire a 55+ year old with health issues. You can say there are anti-discrimination laws but there are ways around those. Besides, most online job applications go through AI so they can quickly determine your age and kick your resume out. The companies also ghost applicants so they never have to give a reason why you were rejected. How about we find a way to tax billionaires instead?
DeleteThe authors do know, but as Charles implies, they have no clue about the level of political backlash this will create.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of the claim that "many more jobs are now available to disabled people" is especially ironic. All of the leading tech CEOs and AI company founders have claimed these jobs will no longer exists by the end of Trump's term. Even if they are overhyping the acceleration towards artificial general intelligence, a high percentage of semi-skilled sedentary positions will be obsolete by 2030.
If this results in people being denied that's one thing, but if this literally kicks people off of SSDI then all hell will break loose!
ReplyDeleteWe don't need more elderly and disabled people on the streets... Reagan did the same thing, and it ended up being a sh*t show!
DeleteOh boy! Would employers' LOVE me. Standing, sitting and walking every 15 minutes, dragging myself into work (maybe), still tired from lack of sleep, all hunched over and grumpy. THEN to go off on them cuz I don't like their bullying comments... nut sorter. It'd drive me into the grave.
ReplyDeleteLove how Trump can’t stick to a single thing he campaigned on. “Deport criminals” nope deport farmers and decent people that have lived here 20+ years because that is easier, even though most of them have an ITIN and pay taxes.
ReplyDeleteDJT - “Don’t know anything about project 2025” nope appointed almost all of the authors (of P2025) to CEO positions of the various agencies.
DJT - “Wont touch SSA” nope fired or forced out 10,000 employees effectively reducing services and making processing times skyrocket, but hey now we can answer the phone within 30 minutes, due to call back policy implemented under the prior COSS!
MUSK - “Fraud, waste and abuse” nope - BS - it was all about DoGE creating fraud and abuse and setting up mass PII loss and fraud! Now, Franky still hasn’t figured out that 99% of payment fraud still comes from the banks being allowed to change account details and their unregulated employees creating huge mass losses to govt payments, but that still continues and Franky boy states it will continue unit the future … even though I personally had two in one day last week for the payment on the 1st.
Now they are appointing him to IRS, really? Guess being boozer and buddies with the right people is the ticket, because knowing what you’re doing doesn’t work for the rest of us.
Lost total respect for this administration and hope when 2026 comes around they start impeachments and watch the rats disappear off the ship
This coming in what appears to be one of the worst job markets in years when even business owners are losing their businesses due to tariffs.
ReplyDelete