It's Really Hard To Get Approved For Social Security Disability

People Cut Off Social Security Disability Benefits In England Didn't Return To Work

     From the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health:

Background Many governments have introduced tougher eligibility assessments for out-of-work disability benefits, to reduce rising benefit caseloads. The UK government initiated a programme in 2010 to reassess all existing disability benefit claimants using a new functional checklist. We investigated whether this policy led to more people out-of-work with long-standing health problems entering employment.

Method We use longitudinal data from the Labour Force Survey linked to data indicating the proportion of the population experiencing a reassessment in each of 149 upper tier local authorities in England between 2010 and 2013. Regression models were used to investigate whether the proportion of the population undergoing reassessment in each area was independently associated with the chances that people out-of-work with a long-standing health problem entered employment and transitions between inactivity and unemployment. We analysed whether any effects differed between people whose main health problem was mental rather than physical.

Results There was no significant association between the reassessment process and the chances that people out-of-work with a long-standing illness entered employment. ...

Lots Of Allegations But Not Many Convictions

Click on this to see it full size. This is from the Annual Report of Social Security's Office Of Inspector General

SSNs To Go Off Army Dog Tags

     From the Army Times:

Soldiers' Social Security numbers will no longer be part of their dog tags, the Army announced Tuesday.

The change, which some have argued is long overdue, is the first update to the ubiquitous identification tags in more than 40 years.

A soldier's Social Security number will be replaced by a 10-digit, randomly-generated number. ...

Field Office Telephone Service Improves

     Social Security has released the statistics shown below on how well its field offices are answering their phones. They're only able to answer them 84% of the time but this is a dramatic improvement over January 2014 when they were only answering the phone 61% of the time.

First Re-Recon In 33 Months

     My firm received an "informal remand" decision today. These are also called re-recons. This was the first one for us since March 2013. Informal remand is a way of approving disability claims for those with very strong cases who are trapped in the long way for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. Across the country, there are tens of thousands of similar cases that the agency should approve in this fashion.

Look What Happened After The GOP Took Over The House

     There's been no formal change in Social Security's rules for determining disability due to intellectual disability or mental illness in decadess. However, look at what's happened in recent years to the number of people approved for disability benefits for these reasons:

Number Of Disability Insurance Benefits Claims Approved For Intellectual Disability

2010 -- 18,867

2011 -- 14,145

2012 -- 12,009

2013 -- 10,141

2014 -- 9,738

Number Of Disability Insurance Benefits Claims Approved For Mental Illness (Including Intellectual Disability)

2010 -- 218,862

2011 -- 191,898

2012 -- 172,995

2013 -- 145,997

2014 -- 123,676

     What happened in 2010 that started this change? Could it be the fact that Republicans took control of the House of Representatives? Is that the same as a change in the statutes or regulations? What do Republicans have against the intellectually disabled? What do they have against those suffering from mental illness? And the biggest question -- why should a change in the control of Congress affect how Social Security determines disability?

Population Insured For Disability Has Risen Far Faster Than Total Population