SSDI Recipients Eligible For PUA

     Under the laws of the state of Wisconsin, North Carolina and possibly other states, individuals who receive Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) from the Social Security Administration are ineligible for standard unemployment compensation. The CARES Act adopted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic created a new type of federally funded unemployment compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PUA), for those not eligible for regular unemployment compensation. The state of Wisconsin asked the U.S. Department of Labor whether individuals receiving DIB would be eligible for PUA since they are barred from receiving regular unemployment compensation. The answer came down yesterday. They are eligible.

Wisconsin Not Allowing Social Security Disability Recipients To Receive Pandemic Unemployment Insurance

     From the Sun Prairie Star:

People stopped traveling when the coronavirus pandemic hit, costing Jessica Barrera her job at Groome Transportation, an airport shuttle service with an office in Eau Claire.

So the 40-year-old single mother joined nearly 70,000 other laid-off Wisconsinites during that third week of March: She filed her first weekly unemployment claim. 

She filed another claim the next week. And the next. And the next. She continued until the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development denied her claims in a letter that explained in bold, capital letters:

“THE CLAIMANT CANNOT RECEIVE SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY PAYMENTS AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BENEFITS CONCURRENTLY.”

“I cried for days,” Barrera said. “I thought (unemployment assistance) was going to be my saving grace to help me get by until my job opened.” 

Barrera has polycythemia vera, a rare disease that causes her body to produce too many red blood cells. The condition can lead to strokes, blood clots, miscarriages and other complications.

She takes a blood thinner and has 16 ounces of blood removed from her body monthly to control her symptoms. She also says she grapples with depression and anxiety following a pair of family tragedies.

All that qualifies Barrera for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), a federally funded program for people who have worked and paid Social Security taxes but can no longer perform “substantially gainful activity.”

SSDI guidelines allow and encourage part-time work so long as she does not earn more than $1,260 per month. “You have to stay poor to keep your health care to stay alive,” Barrera said.

About 175,000 working-age Wisconsinites rely on SSDI to supplement their income. But the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2013 passed a law barring that group from simultaneously receiving unemployment insurance after losing work.

George Wentworth, an unemployment insurance specialist with the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit that supports protections for low-wage workers and the unemployed, said he knows of only one other state — North Carolina — that also explicitly bans tapping both programs. ...

Barrera is appealing with the pro bono help of Victor Forberger, supervising attorney for the University of Wisconsin’s Unemployment Compensation Appeals Clinic, who said he is representing about 20 people with similar cases. Forberger accuses Wisconsin of discriminating against people with disabilities, saying the denials run counter to Congress’ aim. ...

    I live in North Carolina. I have been told that the governor has ordered that Social Security disability recipients will qualify for Pandemic Unemployment Insurance. However, I'm not so sure that there aren't other states with the same issue as Wisconsin.

Democratic Senators Protect Social Security Disability

     From Daily Kos:

Two provisions to cut Social Security benefits in the proposed highway bill caused Democrats in both the Senate and House to revolt. Democrats have succeeded in getting both of those provisions removed, but now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is facing a serious challenge in getting the bill past his own party, in both chambers of Congress. 

Senate Democrats defeated McConnell's first effort to bring the bill to the floor for debate, arguing they didn't have time to read the 1030-page bill in the few hours he had given them, and because of these spending provisions that hit Social Security. Immediately following that defeat, the Social Security cut to people who were concurrently receiving disability benefits and unemployment insurance was removed. The second cut, which would have ended benefits to anyone with an outstanding felony warrant, was was axed before a second procedural vote Wednesday night. Democrats pointed out that the last time this was attempted, and stymied by the courts, the government had to pay back $500 million to some 80,000 people who were wrongly cut off.

McConnell got the votes of 14 Democrats after removing these provisions, and the bill is moving forward this week in the Senate. ...

     Reality check, GOP: If you can't pass these changes to the Social Security disability program, what makes you think you can pass dramatic cuts in the program?

Senate Agrees To Social Security Disability Cuts

     From Huffington Post:

With a little over one week left before funding for the nation's transportation infrastructure dries up, the Senate has reached a deal on a multiyear bill, parting ways with the House. ...

[Senator Barbara] Boxer, the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wouldn’t offer details earlier Tuesday afternoon on all of the offsets that would pay for the bill, but confirmed that some of the money would come from cuts to Social Security benefits for people with outstanding warrants for their arrest, and another measure would prevent Social Security Disability Insurance recipients from simultaneously collecting unemployment insurance. ...

     I'm telling you now. The unemployment provision is going to be a mess, the outstanding warrants provision will be widely perceived as unfair and the GOP will have shown that Democrats are willing to roll over on Social Security disability.

CCD Opposes Bill Linking Social Security Disability To Transportation Bill

     The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) is an umbrella coalition of about 100 groups involved in helping people with disabilities. You don't hear much about CCD but it's a big deal in Washington. This is from a letter that CCD sent on July 16 to each U.S. Senator:

... [W]e write to express the Task Force’s strong opposition to enacting legislation that cuts Social Security, including Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to offset the costs of unrelated programs in the surface transportation reauthorization bill. ...

We understand that at least two Social Security policy changes are currently being considered as offsets for legislation to extend highway transportation funding. 

One measure would eliminate or reduce concurrent SSDI benefits for individuals who attempt to work – as encouraged by law – but lose their job through no fault of their own and qualify for Unemployment Insurance (UI). ...

The SSDI and UI programs were established for different purposes and largely serve different populations. Receiving UI and SSDI concurrently is legal and appropriate. This has been the long - standing position of the Social Security Administration and of the courts. ...

A second measure would bar payment of Social Security or SSI benefits to individuals with outstanding warrants for their arrest. The Social Security Act already prohibits payments to individuals fleeing from law enforcement to avoid prosecution or imprisonment, and the people who would be affected by the CUFF Act are, in fact, neither fugitives nor felons. Almost none of the individuals who would be affected by this pro vision are actual fugitives from justice and most of the warrants in question are many years old and involve minor infractions. Moreover, the Social Security Administration (SSA) attempted to administer a similar provision for a number of years, with catastrophic effect for many vulnerable people with disabilities and seniors , employing procedures that did not withstand judicial scrutiny. If Congress adopts this provision, it would return SSA to a policy that was overly broad and led to much unintended harm to seniors and people with disabilities who have not been convicted of any crime but who rely on Social Security and SSI. ...

Rep. Johnson Introduces Bill

     Sam Johnson, the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee, has introduced a bill that would prevent a person from receiving both unemployment insurance benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits at the same time. The President has included the same proposal in his budget for the next fiscal year. That sounds great to many people. However, there are a few problems.

• All but two states limit unemployment insurance to 26 weeks or less. There's a five month waiting period for Disability Insurance Benefits. You do the math.
• Many, perhaps most, states already reduce unemployment insurance due to the receipt of Disability Insurance Benefits, leading to the possibility of a double offset.
• A high percentage of Disability Insurance Benefits recipients also get Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI benefits are already reduced due to the receipt of unemployment benefits, leading to the possibility of a double or even triple offset.

     The potential savings from this proposal are trivial. My guess is that it will be difficult to draft a bill that doesn't cause double or even triple offsetting of benefits. Even if you can get a bill drafted, implementing it will probably cost more than it can save. Other than these problems, it's a great idea.

No UI Offset In Senate Finance Version Of Highway Bill

     The Senate Finance Committee has reported out the Highway bill without adding an Unemployment Insurance offset for Social Security disability, as was feared. There is still a risk that this will be added at some later point.

UI Offset Under Consideration In Highway Bill

     From a letter sent by the Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee.  CCD is a major umbrella group of organizations serving disabled people:

The undersigned members of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) write to express our opposition to proposals to eliminate or reduce concurrent Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits as a partial offset for funding the Highway Trust Fund under the Preserving American’s Transit and Highways Act (PATH Act).

The SSDI and UI programs were established for different purposes and largely serve different populations. Receiving UI and SSDI concurrently is legal and appropriate. This has been the long - standing position of the Social Security Administration and of the court.

CRS Study On UI Offset

     The Congressional Research Service is out with a report on the concurrent receipt of Social Security disability benefits and unemployment insurance benefits. The report is superficial but it does contain an estimate from Social Security's Chief Actuary that only about 0.39% of Social Security disability recipients also receive unemployment benefits. In other words, it's a tiny problem. Doing something about it wouldn't save much money.
     The report doesn't deal with the considerable technical problems in implementing an offset. Many states now have an offset that goes in the opposite direction, reducing unemployment insurance for Social Security disability benefits. How do you avoid a double offset? Similarly, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are already reduced for the receipt of unemployment benefits. Many people receive both SSI and Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB). Add an offset to DIB and you're doubly offsetting the same benefits. And there's the tax issue. Yes, the tax issue. Unemployment benefits are fully taxable. Social Security disability benefits usually aren't. If you have an offset that goes one way in some states and another one in other states, you have to add a provision to the Internal Revenue Code to equalize treatment. You say that you can't imagine that kind of provision in the Internal Revenue Code? Well, we already have such a provision in the Internal Revenue Code to equalize treatment between states that have a regular workers compensation offset and those which have a reverse offset. Here's I.R.C. 86(d)(3), for your reading pleasure:

For purposes of this section, if, by reason of section 224 of the Social Security Act (or by reason of section 3(a)(1) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974), any social security benefit is reduced by reason of the receipt of a benefit under a workmen’s compensation act, the term “social security benefit” includes that portion of such benefit received under the workmen’s compensation act which equals such reduction.

     Overall, it's questionable whether this sort of offset would even save money once you factor in the costs of administration. It's got superficial appeal but it's a dumb idea in my opinion.

Senators Propose UI Offset

     Five Republican Senators have introduced legislation that would extend federal unemployment insurance benefits. The benefits extension would be fully paid for by other cuts. One of the "pay fors" is reducing Social Security disability benefits for unemployment insurance. I doubt this proposal will be going anywhere in the Senate. There are no Democrats sponsoring this legislation. This plan is almost certainly not going anywhere in the House of Representatives. Still, this shows that an unemployment insurance offset is gaining ground.