The Social Security Administration announced major changes Monday that will help more people qualify for disability benefits.
The changes concern the practices used by the program to determine whether a disability claimant could actually find another job based on their abilities, which could result in benefits being denied.
To make that determination, the SSA relies on an occupational database to see whether there are jobs applicants can still hold, but the database was last updated in 1977 and includes dozens of outdated jobs, leading critics to say it is unfair and flawed.
Those occupations include reptile farmers, railroad telegraphers and watch repairmen, and the SSA said it would remove them from its database. The decision came after The Washington Post profiled a case in which a disability applicant who worked as an electrician was denied because a judge determined he could find work as a nut sorter, dowel inspector and egg processor — all occupations that, in effect, no longer exist.
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“It makes sense to identify occupations that currently exist in very limited numbers in our economy,” Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a statement. “With this update, our decision-makers will no longer cite these occupations when denying applications for disability benefits.”
The change applies to both the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. The former pays benefits to people who are unable to work due to a medical condition that is expected to last at least a year or result in death. The latter program is aimed at low-income disabled people.
The Social Security Administration and Veterans Affairs disability programs have been deemed “high risk” by the Government Accountability Office, a term the office applies to federal programs that are vulnerable to fraud, waste or abuse or that need an overhaul to address their effectiveness. In its April investigation, the office said both programs use “outdated standards to determine whether individuals are eligible for benefits.”
The change is “huge,” Anansi Wilson, a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, wrote on Monday to former Twitter user X. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this is a big change, especially for disabled people of color who are more likely to be denied. Hopefully the thousands of people currently in court will see relief soon!”
What jobs will be eliminated?
The Social Security Administration announced it was removing 114 occupations from a database of more than 12,000 types of jobs, saying it could no longer use those occupations as examples of work that applicants could perform to make “not disabled” decisions in their cases.
Jobs that will be eliminated include:
Canary breeder Impersonator Telephone information operator Theatre historian Projectionist News and communication Photo operator Radio operator Reptile breeder Watch repairman
The Social Security Administration said it will now consider only the most relevant occupations when deciding whether people applying for disability benefits can get other work.
The changes “will make life easier for millions of people,” the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy wrote to X on Monday.
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