Study warned of impact on people 50-plus
The SSA currently considers a bevy of factors in reviewing disability claims, including the availability of jobs that a particular applicant might be able to perform and how well that person might be able to adapt to other jobs based on age, education and other considerations.
If the SSA gave less weight to age, people 50 and older would be less likely to qualify for disability payments, according to a recent analysis by Jack Smalligan, a senior policy fellow at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank.
A similar draft rule was under consideration during the first Trump administration, news outlets reported at the time. Smalligan’s report, published in September, found that if changes along the lines of the previous proposal were implemented, eligibility for SSDI among new applicants could decrease by as much as 20 percent overall and up to 30 percent for workers age 50-plus. (His analysis said the impact on eligibility for SSI, which also has financial criteria, was unclear.)
Reducing SSDI eligibility by just 10 percent would result in about 750,000 fewer people receiving benefits for all or part of the next decade, including about 80,000 widowed spouses and children receiving benefits based on the work record of a late partner or parent, the Urban study found.
“The administration’s efforts could have caused serious harm to hundreds of thousands of workers with disabilities,” Smalligan says. Reversing course “is very important, especially for older workers, and shows an openness to criticism and willingness to change direction.”
‘The right choice’
Jennifer Burdick, a supervising attorney with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, says the news is great for older workers with disabilities.
“It is already very challenging for Americans with disabilities to meet the exacting standards for being approved for disability benefits, and the proposed changes would have made the system much worse,” she says. “Commissioner Bisignano made the right choice to abandon this proposal, and we are looking forward to working with him and SSA to continue to strengthen the disability program.”