Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon). Photo by Diego M. Radzinski/ALM
Democratic and Republican senators agreed Tuesday that Congress and the Social Security Administration must stop Social Security rules from ruining the lives of severely disabled people who try to work.
Federal law and regulations allow people who receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits and Supplemental Security Income to work, senators acknowledged during a hearing on the issue held by the Senate Finance Committee.
But Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden said the rules are so complicated that people with severe disabilities, limited incomes and just wanting to work could find themselves being asked by the Social Security Administration to repay tens of thousands of dollars in overpaid benefits.
The Oregon Democrat said people with disabilities often tell him they want to work in the private sector.
“But when it comes to labor and social security, our current law is a bureaucratic, stifling and unwise straightjacket,” Wyden said.
He said people with severe disabilities too often end up “making too much” when they simply want to do good work — which could mean losing important Medicare or Medicaid health insurance benefits, losing Social Security disability or supplemental income benefits, or receiving letters from the Social Security Administration asking them to send what seem like exorbitant amounts of money.
Wyden called for immediate action on the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Bill, which would raise the income limit for single SSI recipients from $1,500 to $10,000 without triggering a “cancelation” of benefits, or a requirement to pay back what the SSA considers to be excess benefits.
He also called for support for the “No Worries Work Act,” which would allow more severely disabled children to receive Social Security disability benefits based on their deceased parents’ work records.
Currently, children with disabilities can receive benefits based on their parents’ work history only if they are found to be severely disabled by age 21. The Work Without Worry Act would allow children to receive disability benefits based on their parents’ work history, even if they are not officially found to be disabled after age 21, as long as they became disabled before age 21.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) recalled meeting the parents of a woman who had been deprived of oxygen at birth, leaving her with severe learning disabilities, and who had worked as a bagger at a local grocery store for 31 years.
In 2022, “she was notified that her benefits were being terminated and that she would have to repay $17,000,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy said the woman’s parents had to fight for two years to get the SSA to back off.
“She was scared enough and the whole thing was so uncomfortable that she cut her hours just to make sure she never goes through this again,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy, along with Wyden, sponsored the SSI savings penalty elimination bill and the labor unrest bill.
Members of Congress and other stakeholders have been pressuring the SSA to change the strategies it uses to get excess benefits returned by beneficiaries in a variety of situations, particularly when the excess benefits were paid due to SSA error rather than the beneficiary’s misreporting.
YouTube users who saw excerpts from the hearing posted to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) feed commented that they saw issues like those discussed in the hearing affect their own lives.
“I wish I hadn’t fallen off the roof at work,” said iketherather9126. “Being disabled is like living in a prison where you only get bread and water.”
Another user, ralphmunn6689, said he was retired, legally blind, and living in his car in the woods on SSI. To make ends meet, he took a job restocking produce at a grocery store, but after a few months in the job, the state of Massachusetts told him it was stopping his Medicare premiums because he was making too much.
“In my case, the amount of ‘extra’ money I made was less than the amount of additional debt I incurred,” the user said.