The ranking (Democratic) members of the House Ways and Means Committee subcommittees having jurisdiction over Social Security and SSI have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the agency’s decision to assume the role of continuing disability reviews (CDRs).
I’m not sure that I see anything sinister in what Social Security is doing but I don’t see how it makes sense either. It’s not like there have been problems with CDRs that I’ve been aware of, so why are they doing it..
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MAGA Jason Smith is eyeing the midterms and making sure that all the waste , fraud and abuse is eliminated with SSA disability benefits.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) has not proposed cutting Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. Instead, he and House Republicans emphasize protecting core benefits, addressing agency backlogs, and advancing legislation aimed at helping beneficiaries return to work without reducing their overall income..
Even being obviously disabled, a lot of times those people are rejected at the initial phase for one reason or another as it is. Does the DDS make mistakes? Yes. I know firsthand. Will changing it to the federalization of CDR's eliminate those mistakes? Most likely not, and I don't foresee experts leaving DDS to join the DCR when they are still needed in the initial phases of eligibility. Fixing something that is not broken IS waste. Overwhelm the system (or strip experts from CDR's) and watch it collapse? Is that their goal? Stress on beneficiaries is a real and sometimes dangerous thing for some, it can make disabilities worse, and if there are delays, that stress becomes unbearable. We don't need another Reagan era fumble, that's for sure. Arguably, that's what caused the homeless population to skyrocket...or worse. It's difficult to obtain a lawyer on a CDR cessation because rarely is there backpay unless the claimant doesn't appeal within 10 days to keep benefits, and even without the appeal the backpay is negligible. There are not enough volunteer law firms/lawyers to keep up with the need.
There will be a push to speed up CDR’s resulting in terminations
The problem with CDRs and it’s not the DDS’ fault, is the field is not prioritizing age 18 CDRs properly, which is in violation of statute. The Agency is making a big push to not delay these cases anymore as they have a high rate of cessation.
We’re already hearing that executives are concerned about low cessation rates!
It’s already happening
Worthy goals. Adding some observations to temper them: 1. It is very well documented that, as a percentage of benefits paid, waste fraud and abuse at SSA has for a long time been much less than that experienced by private insurers providing similar benefits. Yes, carry on, but beware diminishing returns. 2. The people overwhelmingly want all current benefits protected, not just "core" benefits. 3. Anyone seriously studying the issue knows that the largest percentage of disability beneficiaries that you can expect to go back to sustained work is in the lower single digits even in a best case scenario. That being said, it's still worth doing for both economic and humane reasons.
Simply stated, CDRs take less time and resources to process and DDSs are better than Federal units at processing initial claims and recons. There is a cynical possibility that Federalizing CDRs is a way to increase benefit terminations
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