Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Reform

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President-Elect Trump has proposed “No Tax on Social Security.” The following additional changes are proposed:

No Federal Income Tax on SSDI

There is currently a five-month waiting period for benefits to start after an onset of disability is established once approved for SSDI. This waiting period should be removed due to economic hardship.

The waiting period is extremely burdensome on disabled individuals who have already had to survive on no income from the date they had to stop working due to their disability. Even if their last employer did offer short term disability benefits, the income is greatly reduced, causing economic hardship.

We must do more to assist disabled individuals in reducing great economic hardship once they become disabled and have to stop working and then have to wait for a decision after applying for SSDI. Many individuals even lose their home during this waiting period. Many have to subsequently file bankruptcy after they have to stop working, causing long-term economic hardship after their loss of credit.

Accordingly, SSDI benefits should be paid as of the onset date of disability, with no waiting period.

No Waiting Period for Medicare After Approved for SSDI

Currently an individual who is found disabled and qualifies for SSDI benefits must wait for a period of two years after SSDI payments begin to qualify for Medicare. Under the current program, that is a period of 29 months ( five months after the onset date of disability plus two years). This is an economic hardship on the disabled individual.

Not every disabled individual is able to be covered under another medical plan during this waiting period. If they are not married, they do not have the option of being covered under a spouse’s medical plan. Even if the disabled individual’s last employer offers continued medical insurance coverage under COBRA, there are many factors which may limit an individual’s ability to secure medical coverage under COBRA, such as:

(a) If the individual worked for an employer with less than 20 employees, the offer of continued medical insurance coverage under COBRA is not required.

(b) If an individual does qualify for continued medical insurance coverage under COBRA, the time allowed for continued coverage ranges from 18 to 36 months. For those who only qualify for a continuation of coverage for 18 months, then they are subject to a significant gap while awaiting Medicare coverage to begin as described above.

(c) Even if an individual qualifies for continued medical coverage under COBRA, many cannot afford the medical insurance due to the high cost, without employer contribution due to the disabled individual no longer working, and the fact they may have had no income from the time they stopped working until disability benefits actually begin to paid.

The delay of an Individual becoming eligible for Medicare once they are found disabled can affect a disabled person’s ability to receive proper medical care for their condition(s) during this waiting period, which can even be life threatening to some disabled individuals.

In summary, an individual becoming disabled is a hardship that is very difficult on the disabled individual. Accordingly, the added hardships of the waiting period for both SSDI benefits and Medicare should be changed to avoid economic and health care hardships and improve the quality of life to the disabled individual.

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I agree 100% with this. I am a disabled person who broke his back in 2010. I had to wait until 2016 before I could get disability. I was supposed to get compensation from the date i filed but social security said they only compensate for 6 months. I lost my house my car and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Now I live in a old single wide built in 1967with my family of 4. I have had to slowly rebuild the moldy, drafty rusted thing into an actual home that wouldn’t cost us a fortune to heat or cool. It has taken me 10 years with the first 6 living in a tin can where we wore our coats inside during the winter.

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I agree with this and I also think the amount of compensation people get should be adjusted. My daughter gets around $700 a month. She’s a single parent, has all the normal bills to pay and I have to help her every month just to make ends meet. It should be a higher amount.

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Absolutely ive been struggling since June with multiple disabilities and no income. The 5 month waiting period needs to be paid also, and if you have numerous doctors presenting evidence that you are indeed unable to work it should not take months to decide your case.

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Agree. They need to take another look at this. I think the delay and years of waiting was for the government to have evidence that you are permanently disabled, verses something that may get better in time. Allow people to apply earlier with a document of some sort, from a licensed physician in that specialty, to determine permanent disability. In other words a psychologist could not determines someone’s ability to walk, etc.
Make it faster to get, but not easy for any physician to be able to confirm the disability. Otherwise my chiropractor uncle could get cash to sign a document that my cousin suffers from PTSD to the point she cannot work.

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I agree with this! Applying for SSDI shouldn’t be so difficult that you have to hire an attorney to help you do it! The paperwork is ridiculous! An attorney costs over $3000. It’s a cushy money-making machine for attorneys! Elon Musk needs to come in and streamline this cash cow!

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I agree with all this. I think we should add additional help, with food, energy, for both SSDI as well as for our elderly living on just SS retirement. We must do better caring for our disabled, retired people. They must never be forced from their homes into the streets. No SSI for non citizens.

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It took me nine and a half years to finally get approved for full disability with SSA. They only allow you to be off work for five years before you’re disqualified for SSDI. I was fully qualified for SSDI but I only get SSI. My medical records didn’t change. I only gained more medical proof of my disability with further testing and alternative medical treatments. As the primary caregiver and breadwinner for three generations as a single mom suddenly not having my six figure annual income and not getting the work comp benefits I should have and the STD and LTD insurance benefits I had paid for through my employer all due to literal corruption in these systems is disgusting. I saw the same type of corruption in the disability determination process as well. Was even given insider information of why they were trying to approve as few as possible and having good physicians state they see it on a regular basis where those actually needing SSDI don’t get it and those not needing it do. That’s terrible! I and my family have suffered greatly due to these policies and corrupt practices of these organizations. I had already been suffering with partial disability for almost nine years due to multiple brain injuries with complications and other injuries from various accidents before I was taken off work by the work comp physician as my neurological functioning tanked after a fourth brain injury from a fall on the ice leaving work. When we have good respected physicians treating and advocating for us the systems need to follow through with all the helps we actually literally do need. I was left to literally advocate for myself. Imagine how difficult and stressful that is while dealing with debilitating brain damage which takes away who you were and what you were able to do prior to the injuries.

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They get either 25% of your backpay or $7200 now. Whichever is less. I thought I had good SSDI lawyers but found out it wasn’t so until the last one I had. But I cannot say it was because of her skillset. It was because the magic key seemed to be me turning 50 which then helped me get my full disability determination finally. Plus a new hearing judge. My medical records hadn’t changed. The severity of my debilitation was obvious from the time I first applied for SSDI which my own work comp care coordinator told me to do after she saw what her own work comp company was doing to stop paying my work comp benefits. It was pretty shady. Literal corruption in that system. Imagine that.

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For those that apply early due to disability, you could have applied and received SS Disability.

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Could you please expand on this? I applied “early” and it took nine and a half years to get approved. I had to reapply and reapply as they continued denying my application despite my ongoing debilitation with plenty of medical proof. I had to go through their lengthy process three times to get any disability income. I even had vocational rehab determine I was in their most significantly disabled category six years before I finally got my SSA full disability determination and they are the same organization with the state that makes these determinations. Based on my medical records. So I ended up with only SSI. Not because I didn’t apply “early” but because it took SSA that long to finally approve my application.

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There are companies out there like Binder and Binder that will work on your behalf to get you your SSD. I understand that you are collecting now but if you know anyone else that needs their SSD early, hire one of these companies.

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SSA I think you mean SSI . Which is different than SSD. SSD requirements used to be you had to work full time for 15 years. SSI does not require a work history.

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Continuing the discussion from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Reform:

The whole disability system needs to be upgraded. For my case: I have a disability that is on the list of qualifying disabilities on the SSDI web site. I have the work credits, I’m 60 been working since I was 16. I have been denied once and am sitting at the reconsideration level. It has been 3 years and 4 months. I have the medical records and have followed all the rules to keep my application active. I don’t understand the time it takes to process a claim. I have read stories where some people get it approved in mere months and others , like myself, having to wait years. I would have never applied if my conditions were not on the list of qualifications. I would not have put myself through this stress and aggravation. I have paid into the system for 40 years and now I need to be able to use that.
2024-11-13T05:00:00Z

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I have Retinitis Pigmentosa, in the manual for SSD my eye disease is listed as an example if the condition is at a certain stage it is guaranteed. I was denied even though mybeyes were worse. Then given a list of attorneys to pick from. I was told what information to obtain, handed all documents to the attorney at the hearing. The attorney handed the documents to the judge and i was given SSD. TOTAL scam, paid 50% of back pay

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My husband had 6 major heart attacks, lost a kidney to cancer, the other kidney was in failure and he was put on dialysis. He was so weak that just washing the dishes exhausted him. We waited nearly a year for approval, he lost his car, we nearly lost the house and ended up filing for bankruptcy. He was finally approved the day before he died. Because he died in that month, we did not get any of his pay because he didn’t make it through. They make us think we have a safety net, we don’t.

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I was fully qualified for SSDI. Because it took SSA nine and a half years from when I first applied to approve my full disability I only ended up getting SSI. You only get five years of being off work to get SSDI. Once you are past that you only get SSI. It wasn’t a delay on my part. It was theirs. I had to go through a first application round that took them two and a half years to give a denial on. The next application round it took three years on their part. The third application round it took almost four years on their part when I finally received full disability approval. Thus only getting SSI.

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Even if you have SSDI lawyers doesn’t mean you’ll get approved right away. Again it took nine and a half years with SSDI lawyers to even get SSI for me.

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I agree with this. However, I didn’t have a 5 month waiting period for either SSDI or Medicare. I do think that this is important for many of those who are disabled and receiving these benefits. I’m disabled and receiving these benefits and the amount that you get for disability doesn’t even meet today’s economy, especially if you have other bills to pay including a Medicaid spend-down. I know for me I have roughly $150 left after all bills are paid, which doesn’t even make through the month when you have to drive to your appointments three times a week, or additional appointments when needed. I definitely think that SSA needs to be reorganized someway so that the offices can be more sufficient to help their clients. The amount of paperwork that I get from them is ridiculous.

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In Texas it takes 18 months to 2 years to get through the process when applying for SSDI. That is way too long. Additionally there is a significant difference in the monthly benefits between SSI and SSDI. My grandson’s parents are both profoundly deaf. They both use sign language to communicate. They both worked at various jobs. Eventually she stopped working (it is very difficult finding a job when you are deaf). My son worked 18 years at FedEx. When he became too sick to work, he could only get SSDI instead of SSI (which he had been before working and between jobs). She was able to get back on SSI which pays more than SSDI. Essentially same disability, but different work histories. My son passed away from his illness. Just doesn’t seem fair and also seems overly complicated. Entire process could be streamlined.