If you have just suffered a disability that prevents you from working, and you also meet the legal definition of disability from the Social Security Administration (SSA), they can help you cover your basic needs and improve your quality of life.
The SSA offers disability benefits through two main programs: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Both programs use a five-step process to determine if an adult qualifies as disabled, according to the agency’s parameters.
In line with President Joe Biden’s Executive Order to improve the customer experience and rebuild trust in government services, the SSA has recently introduced certain changes that aim to lighten the administrative burden for SSDI and SSI applicants, while seeking to ensure that more eligible people receive the benefits they deserve.
On April 18, 2024, the SSA announced a new rule titled “Intermediate Improvement to the Disability Adjudication Process: Including How We Consider Past Work.”
What Is a Disability, According to the SSA?
The Social Security Act defines disability as an individual’s inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity (SGA), and this is given by a medically determinable physical or mental impairment. The disability, to be considered as qualifying before the SSA, must be expected to last at least 1 year or end at the death of the patient.
For adults, disability is determined based on the severity of the impairment. It must be so severe that the person cannot perform his previous job or, considering his age, education and work experience, participate in any other substantial paid work available in the national economy. This is true regardless of whether such a job exists in the local area, whether there are specific job vacancies, or whether the person would be hired if they applied for work.
This new rule is designed to streamline the disability benefits application process and reduce the waiting time for applicants to receive a decision. It simplifies the fourth step of the process, which assesses whether an applicant can do any of their “relevant previous jobs.”
“Our new rule will reduce the time and effort applicants need to spend detailing their employment history, allowing them to focus on the most up-to-date and relevant information about their previous jobs,” said Martin O’Malley, Commissioner of Social Security. “This also improves the quality of the information our staff uses to make decisions, improving customer service and reducing case processing times and overall waiting times.”
Streamlined Process to Apply for Disability Benefits
Starting June 22, 2024, the SSA will only look at the last five years of an applicant’s work history when determining relevant past work. Previously, applicants had to provide detailed information about their work history for the last 15 years, which could be difficult to remember and often resulted in incomplete or inaccurate reports. In addition, the SSA will no longer consider jobs that lasted less than 30 days.
This change focuses on more recent job activities, making the process easier for applicants and at the same time providing enough information for accurate determinations.
This final rule is just one of several updates the SSA is implementing to improve its disability programs. Recently, the SSA announced that it will make it easier to access the SSI program by updating the definition of a public assistance home. They also plan to exclude the value of food from SSI benefit calculations and expand the rent subsidy exception, currently available in seven states, to a national policy.