Shuffling The Deck Chairs

      From the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare:

There’s been an uncanny amount of re-shuffling of workers and resources at the Social Security Administration lately – in a feeble attempt to paper over Trump’s reckless cuts in staffing. The latest example of this game of whack-a-mole unfolded last week. 

Commissioner Frank Bisignano announced a shiny, new plan to “centralize” medical reviews for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits — which could impact nearly 9 million Americans. (Disabled workers can lose their benefits if they do not pass these periodic reviews.)

This shift yanks the review process away from experienced state Disability Determination Services (DDS) offices, supposedly to boost “accountability.” These medical reviews will now fall under the purview of SSA’s federal Disability Case Review (DCR) team. 

We suspect that this move has nothing to do with “accountability,” and really is about “re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” as our senior Social Security expert, Maria Freese, puts it.  She points out that Trump’s SSA, after recklessly cutting more than 7,000 jobs when the agency already was understaffed, now finds itself falling short in key areas — and is furiously trying to plug holes.

“The agency has way too much work, with too few people. So they shift around the workload (in this case, SSDI reviews), so that overburdened staff in other areas have to do that work. That ultimately leaves SSA with a deficit somewhere else.” Freese explains. “Eventually, everyone who is reliant on the agency suffers.” …

Where’s The Slack Coming From?

From: ^Commissioner Broadcast <Commissioner.Broadcast@ssa.gov>

Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2026 11:35 AM

Subject: SSA Brings Continuing Disability Review Workloads In-House  

A Message to All SSA and DDS Employees      

 

Subject: SSA Brings Continuing Disability Review Workloads In-House 

Today, we announced the agency will bring in-house the processing of medical continuing disability reviews (CDRs) from State Disability Determination Services (DDS) to our federal processing site called Disability Case Review (DCR). CDRs are conducted as part of SSA’s ongoing program integrity workload to determine whether a person receiving disability benefits should continue receiving them.   

Centralizing medical CDRs is another important step to reduce improper payments and improve customer service. This shift allows the DDSs to focus on efficiently processing disability claim decisions and benefits for eligible individuals. Reduced wait times for state level disability decisions means eligible individuals can begin receiving their critical benefits more quickly.   

DDS initial claim backlogs spiked to over 1.2 million in June of 2024. They have done great work driving down the backlog to 831,000 claimants waiting for a decision as of February 2026. This next step will maximize the DDS’s state level resources to further reduce processing time and continue to drive down the pending claims. 

 

DCR, with its experience processing initial disability claims, reconsideration cases, and medical CDRs, will now handle medical CDRs for the entire country—allowing DDS sites to focus on reducing wait times on initial claims and reconsideration cases for citizens in their state. Non-medical CDRs, which do not require the same expertise as medical CDRs to process, will continue to be handled by the agency’s field offices and processing centers. 

Frank J. Bisignano 

Commissioner 

Many Who Lose Disability Benefits Return To Them

     From Outcomes Following Termination of Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits, an article in the Social Security Bulletin, the agency's scholarly journal:

We examined the experiences of former Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) disabled-worker beneficiaries in the years following termination of benefits due to medical improvement or work. Using Social Security Administration data, we found that approximately 16 percent of former DI-only beneficiaries whose benefits were terminated because of medical improvement between 2005 and 2014 returned to DI entitlement within 5 years of termination. By contrast, the DI reentitlement rate during the same period among those whose benefits were terminated because of work was significantly higher (about 32 percent). Fewer than half (45 percent) of former DI-only beneficiaries whose benefits were terminated because of medical improvement had average post-termination earnings exceeding the poverty threshold, compared with 71 percent of beneficiaries with work-based terminations. Age, entitlement duration, the likelihood of medical improvement, and certain diagnoses—especially psychotic disorders, intellectual disorders, neoplasms, and injuries—correlated with earnings levels and the likelihood of DI reentitlement in the years following benefit termination.

Finally

      Social Security can cut off disability benefits if there is medical improvement. However, claimants can ask that their disability benefits continue while they appeal. More than 40 years after benefit continuation came into being Social Security has finally created a form for claimants to use to request benefit continuation.

CDRs To Resume

     Social Security is resuming Continuing Disability Reviews (CDRs) in October for the new federal fiscal year. The CDRs had been suspended due to the huge backlog of cases awaiting a decision on initial claims. Resuming CDRs is likely to slow down Disability Determination Services (DDS) work on initial claims.

SSA Stops CDRs For The Remainder Of The Fiscal Year

     From Emergency Message EM-24021:

With the enactment of our full-year appropriation for this fiscal year, we are lowering our Full Medical CDR t[Continuing Disability Review] arget from 575,000 to 375,000.

This reduction will allow DDSs [Disability Determination Services] to focus on processing Initial Disability Claims and Reconsideration cases. The field offices will not send additional Full Medical CDRs to the DDS for the remainder of FY 2024. ...

Do not assign unassigned CDRs pending in your receipt or staging queue. DDS should take no action on the unassigned Full Medical CDRs. ...

Age 18 Redeterminations:

If you have sufficient evidence in file at the publication date of this emergency message, make the Age 18 Redetermination.
If the evidence in file at the publication date of this emergency message is insufficient to make the Age 18 Redetermination:
a. Do not initiate additional development, such as requesting medical evidence of record (MER) or school records;
b. Do not schedule for consultative examinations (CE); and,
c. Do not assign to medical or psychological consultant(s) for review. ...

A Less Colorful Waterfall Chart With CDR Numbers

 

Click on image to view full size

Signature No Longer Required On One Form

     From Emergency Message EM-23054:

This emergency message (EM) notifies technicians that we no longer require a signature on any version of the SSA-455 [a Continuing Disability Review form sent to claimants]...

SSA recently received OMB [Office of Management and Budget, whose pro forma OK is required before changing forms] approval to discontinue the requirement for a signature on the CDR Mailer form SSA-455 and SSA-455-OCR-SM. The latest inForm Library version of the SSA-455 has been updated to remove the signature box. ...

     If we can dispense with the signature requirement on this form, can't we dispense with some other signature requirements or at least verification of electronic signatures? There's a lot of field office time wasted on this.

Debt Limit Bill Passes House Of Representatives

     The bill to increase the debt limit passed the House of Representatives yesterday. It would force a slight decrease in "non-defense discretionary" spending. That's only a relatively small portion of federal spending but it includes Social Security's administrative budget. If you consider inflation, which may be around 5% now, agencies affected can expect a significant decrease in operating funds. Exactly how much each agency in the "non-defense discretionary" category receives will be determined in the appropriations process that lies ahead. While we can hope that the Social Security Administration fares better than other agencies, the reality is that it has been disfavored in recent years, receiving less than most other agencies in the "non-defense discretionary" category.

     The projected cut in operating funds for Social Security probably won't be across the board. I am attaching a page from the debt limit bill. My guess is that the language about continuing disability reviews is intended to make sure that the Social Security Administration has more and more to spend on CDRs even though its appropriation otherwise will go down. Does anyone know whether there's more going on?

Click on image to view full size

Every Bad Idea For Social Security That The GOP Has Ever Had, In One Document

    Republicans in the House of Representatives have put forth their plan for what that they hope to extort from the President by threatening to put the U.S. government into default on its debts. Here's what their plan would do to Social Security retirement benefits (begins at page 80):

• Implement a new minimum benefit of 15% of the average wage index;
• "Modernize" the Social Security benefit formula, which is a euphemism for reducing future benefits for those now 54 and younger;
• Increase Full Retirement Age to 70 between now and 2040;
• Eliminate the retirement earnings test for those who are under Full Retirement Age;
• Eliminate auxiliary benefits for high wage earners.
  

    The plan also includes changes in disability benefits (begins at page 74):

• Enact a benefits offset experiment that would reduce disability benefits by $1 for every $2 earned (they must not know that this experiment is underway already);
• Allow FICA reductions for employers with high rates of employee retention, which is supposed to help handicapped people stay employed (which would disadvantage manufacturers);
• Require employment in six of the last ten years, instead of five;
• Time limited disability benefits for some recipients; 
• "Update" the grid regulations;
• Make disability benefits contingent on medical improvement (I don't think they meant to say that but that's what they said);
• Prevent those drawing unemployment benefits from drawing disability benefits;
• Eliminate withholding of attorney fees for representing claimants (at least I think that's what they're saying but they only thing clear about it is that they bear a lot of ill will towards attorneys);
• Close the record "after a reasonable period of time";
• Require Social Security to conduct periodic reviews of ALJ decisions, particularly those of "outlier" judges;
• Prohibit reapplications within 12 months of a denial;
• Increase the waiting period for Medicare from 24 months to 60 months;
• Eliminate the ability to apply for both early retirement and disability benefits at the same time;
• Allow employers and employees a reduced FICA rate if the employer provides long term disability benefits.

Waterfall Chart With CDRs

Click on image to view full size

Proposed Rules On Frequency Of CDRs Being Withdrawn

      Tomorrow's Federal Register will include a notice from the Social Security Administration that it is withdrawing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking posted while Andrew Saul was Commissioner that would have made continuing disability reviews more frequent for some recipients of disability benefits.

Why The Concentration On CDRs When Basic Service Is Suffering?

      From David Weaver, writing for The Hill:

The Biden administration recently released its first official budget plan, which recommends a 9.7 percent increase in the administrative budget of the Social Security Administration (SSA). This increase in top-line funding would partially reverse the chronic underfunding of the agency by Congress (SSA's core operating budget, adjusted for inflation, fell 13 percent from 2010 to 2021, while the number of beneficiaries SSA serves grew by 22 percent). However, problems with SSA's administrative funding go beyond insufficient funding of top-line numbers.

Increasingly, Congress has directed funding away from service delivery to disability reviews that remove individuals from the rolls based on SSA's assessment of medical improvement. ...

SSA plans to increase the number of full medical disability reviews next year by 36 percent and increase the number of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) redeterminations by 23 percent. ...

SSA plans to accelerate disability reviews next year so the agency can rapidly get back to being "current" on conducting the maximum number of reviews allowed by regulations. However, the agency shows no similar urgency on being "current" on other program integrity workloads. ...

Congress needs to pause increases in disability reviews and redeterminations until it can study — and possibly reform — the administrative process. That will also have the beneficial effect of allowing SSA to focus on service delivery as it begins to find its footing following the pandemic.

Could Musculoskeletal Listing Changes Be Reconsidered?

      The harsh new musculoskeletal Listings are scheduled to go into effect on April 2. However, the change of Administration could delay implementation or even kill these changes altogether. Soon after taking office, Biden's Chief of Staff sent a memorandum to agency heads giving them this directive:

... With respect to rules that have been published in the Federal Register, or rules that have been issued in any manner, but have not taken effect, consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days from the date of this memorandum ... for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy the rules may raise.  For rules postponed in this manner, during the 60-day period, where appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider opening a 30-day comment period to allow interested parties to provide comments about issues of fact, law, and policy raised by those rules, and consider pending petitions for reconsideration involving such rules.  As appropriate and consistent with applicable law, and where necessary to continue to review these questions of fact, law, and policy, consider further delaying, or publishing for notice and comment proposed rules further delaying, such rules beyond the 60-day period.  Following the 60-day delay in effective date:

a. for those rules that raise no substantial questions of fact, law, or policy, no further action needs to be taken; and 

b. for those rules that raise substantial questions of fact, law, or policy, agencies should notify the OMB Director and take further appropriate action in consultation with the OMB Director. ...

     The musculoskeletal Listings certainly raise substantial questions of policy, if not fact. Even though their effective date is more than 60 days after this memo, it would certainly seem that they should be subject to additional review and that there should be a new comment period. I would expect that there will be "requests for reconsideration" of the Listings. These new musculoskeletal Listings are not mere housekeeping. They were and remain a highly controversial attack on disability claimants.

     By the way, those proposed regulations that would have increased the number of continuing disability review and that would have modified the grid regulations may not have been officially withdrawn yet but they're dead.

Final Approval Requested For CDR Regs

      Almost a year ago, Social Security published proposed regulations on continuing disability reviews. They propose to add a new category fro reviews, Medical Improvement Likely (MIL), to be reviewed every two years. MIL was aimed at a group of impairments which they said fitted between the categories of Medical Improvement Expected (MIE) and Medical Improvement Possible (MIP). They said they would include anxiety related disorders in this category. They proposed to increase the frequency of reviews for the category of Medical Improvement Not Expected (MINE) from seven years to six years. Overall, they said they expected to increase Continuing Disability Review (CDRs) by more than 1.1 million a year. This proposal encountered considerable opposition. 

     Social Security has now asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to give approval to these as final regulations.  OMB won't have long to act on the proposed final regulations. Traditionally, new Administrations put a freeze on any regulations still pending at OMB as well as new regulations that have been published but which have not yet gone into effect. Since agencies have to give at least 30 days notice, by my calculation Social Security needs to get these regulations in the Federal Register by December 21 to have them become effective before Joe Biden takes office. Even if they meet this timeline, the new Administration can refuse to implement them and the new Congress can review them under the Congressional Review Act. There are no filibusters of Congressional Review Act reviews.

Biden Plan For Social Security Disability

      From Joe Biden's plan for people with disabilities:

PROTECT AND STRENGTHEN ECONOMIC SECURITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

The Trump Administration has systematically attacked the Social Security disability programs—from proposing monitoring people with disabilities through social media in order to cancel their benefits, including their health care, to tightening eligibility through a proposal to  redefine the number of hours in a work week so some applicants do not receive benefits. The National Council on Disability found that “people with disabilities live in poverty at more than twice the rate of people without disabilities.” To protect the economic security of people with disabilities and increase employment opportunities, Biden will take a holistic approach to Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Medicaid, and other programs to support people with disabilities. He will: 

• Increase the benefit level for people receiving SSI. Biden will set a federal benefit rate of at least 100% of the poverty level. 
• Eliminate the five-month waiting period for SSDI and two-year waiting period for Medicare. Biden will work to pass legislation to ensure working people who develop a condition or disability are able to get their Social Security support as well as their Medicare benefits as soon as they qualify. 
• Eliminate the “benefit cliff” for SSDI. Earnings limits under SSDI can discourage people with disabilities from engaging in employment or internship opportunities when they depend on SSDI funds. Biden will increase this limit and phase out this benefit gradually so people with disabilities don’t have to choose between employment and health care. 
• Reform the SSI program so that it doesn’t limit beneficiaries’ freedom to marry, save, or live where they choose. Biden will work with Congress and the disability community to eliminate the SSI marriage penalty and “in-kind support and maintenance” provision and raise the asset limits associated with SSI that have not been increased since 1984. 
• Expand access to tax-advantaged savings accounts, ABLE accounts, which provide people with disabilities a way to pay for “qualified disability-related expenses, such as education, housing and transportation.” Biden will work to pass the ABLE Age Adjustment Act, which will make ABLE accounts available to 6 million additional adults with disabilities, including 1 million veterans. 
• Reverse damage done to Social Security rules by the Trump Administration. President Trump announced that he wants to change the Social Security rules for people who get disability benefits, including SSI and SSDI. His proposed change would require many to re-verify their disability every two years, a tough enough process to get through once, targeting adults with disabilities who are close to retirement, children with disabilities, and people with certain medical conditions including cancer and behavioral disorders. If approved by the Trump Administration, Biden will rescind this harmful proposal.
• Strengthen the Social Security Administration. Ensuring that Social Security benefits are easy to access and that field offices and teleservice centers are fully funded is key to our bedrock commitment to seniors and people with disabilities. Cutting Social Security services will only hurt the most vulnerable in our communities. Biden will provide sufficient resources for staffing needs to meet the needs of beneficiaries today and into the future.

Draft Bill Gives Little New Funding To SSA But Does Protect ALJs

     From a press release:

The House Appropriations Committee today released the draft fiscal year 2021 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) funding bill, which will be considered in subcommittee tomorrow. The legislation includes funding for programs within the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and other related agencies, including the Social Security Administration. ...

$13 billion for the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) operating expenses, with an increase of $100 million above the FY 2020 enacted level to hire additional staff at field offices, teleservice and processing centers and improve public services. ...

• Continuing Disability Reviews—The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the Social Security Administration from finalizing or implementing a new rule that would significantly increase the number and frequency of CDRs, cutting benefits to Social Security and SSI disabled beneficiaries.   
   
• Administrative Law Judges—The bill includes a new provision prohibiting the Social Security Administration from finalizing or implementing a proposed rule that would replace an individual’s right to appeal their denied application for Social Security or SSI benefits before an independent Administrative Law Judges at a hearing, with an appeal before an SSA staff attorney.

     Note that $100 million is less than 1% of the budget. Even in a time of recession, this may not be enough to cover inflation. I don't this this would lead to any new hiring.

CDRs And Overpayment Collection Suspended Among Other Things

     From a new Social Security Covid-19 website:

What workloads is SSA not doing during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Created: March 18, 2020

We have suspended the following workloads until further notice:

• We will not start or complete any current medical continuing disability reviews. If you have a medical continuing disability review pending, please do not request medical information from your doctors at this time. We will follow up with you for any medical evidence once the COVID-19 public health emergency subsides.
• Where possible, we are suspending our processing and collection of overpayments.
• We are not conducting organization or individual representative payee accountings.
• We will not be able to process a third party requests for information, except from appointed representatives and representative payees
• We will not process any Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

     What if Social Security is already withholding part of a claimant's benefits because of an overpayment? Are they suspending that?

Opposition To CDR Speedup Spreads

     From Newsweek:

More than 140 lawmakers in the House and Senate have signed open letters hitting out at a "harmful and unjustified" Trump administration proposal that could see thousands of Americans lose their disability benefits.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those who put their names to the letters calling on the administration to scrap its proposed rule change, which would increase the frequency of disability reviews faced by some benefits recipients if it comes into effect.

The Senate letter was signed by a total of 41 senators. Newsweek understands that more than 100 signatures have been collected on the House letter so far, with more to come. ...

New CCD Positions

     The Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), the major umbrella group of organizations that help the disabled, has issued three recent statements concerning Social Security. CCD opposes the plan to increase the frequency and alter the targeting of continuing disability reviews. CCD supports expanding Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and Samoa. (By the way, does anyone know the status of litigation on this issue?) CCD supports ending the five month waiting period for Disability Insurance Benefits.