Social Security Disability Waiting Period & Medicare Waiting Period

 

Two waiting periods associated with Social Security Disability should be eliminated now.

Five months of non-pay.

Once a person is approved for Social Security Disability, he will not be paid until five months after his “onset” date.  [In the Supplemental Security Income Disability program, the waiting period amounts to only one month.]  The reasoning behind this non-pay period is that the disabled individual should be able to live on his savings for the first five months.  Congress also wanted to make sure that no one applied for disability unless he had a serious disability.

The reality is that very few disabled or non-disabled people have five months of savings to live on.

Secondly, the Social Security Administration does not make decisions in a timely manner on the applications for Social Security Disability [or Supplemental Security Income Disability].  Additionally many applicants are forced to appeal initial decisions and wait many months for a favorable decision.

Legislation to eliminate the five months waiting period can be by default, that is, the law should be changed so that if the Social Security Administration takes more that five months to finally approve the disability claim, the five months waiting period should be waived.

24 Months before Medicare.

Beneficiaries who have been found to have a disability severe enough to satisfy the Social Security Administration must now wait until they have been in pay status for 24 months before they can receive Medicare health benefits.  [In the Supplemental Security Income Disability program, applicants usually receive Medicaid benefits.]    One of the reasons for this waiting period is that Congress did not want people applying for Social Security Disability benefits just for the health insurance.  The elimination of the 24-month waiting period should be enacted now.

 

 

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

 

 

Patriot’s Day 2008

 

All photographs and original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SSDI and SSI — what’s the difference?

As noted in my “in the news” post today, both Democratic presidential candidates, Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, sounded a bit awkward in their references to the two distinct disability programs, Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income Disability in response to a particular questionnaire.  Actually, their campaign staffs probably completed the questionnaire.  (I am sure that the US Senate staffs are more expert on the two programs as they deal with constituents.  So it is to the credit of the campaigns that they are apparently not using their official staffs to respond to campaign questionnaires.)  Additional information from both candidates is also posted on the website of the disability organization that participated in the questioning.  See http://www.aapd-dc.org/News/election/070604sbo.htm.

 

However, confusion about the programs, in part, may be based on the confusing names of each of the programs and the over reliance on the abbreviations of the programs.

Simply put Social Security Disability is one part of the Social Security program funded by the payroll tax of workers, the FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, tax.  The other two parts of the Social Security program are retirement benefits and survivor benefits.

The Supplemental Security Income program, on the other hand, which also has two components, benefits for the aged and for the disabled, is funded entirely by general tax revenue.

The threshold requirements for Social Security Disability and for Supplemental Security Income Disability are different, although the inability to work because of a medical disability requirement is exactly the same for each program.

To be eligible for Social Security Disability, generally the worker must have worked recently and for a certain amount of time with respect to his disability.  Therefore, a worker, who may not have worked recently or for a sufficient period of time or may have not worked at all such as a stay-at-home parent, might not be eligible for Social Security Disability and might then apply for Supplemental Security Income Disability.

Another big difference between the programs is that under Supplemental Security Income Disability, the government has set income and asset limitations and has created accounting rules such as retrospective monthly accounting and deeming (of other household income) systems. 

The major difference between Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income Disability is that under the Social Security Disability program, a worker can be paid an amount based on his work record (not unlike his retirement benefit).  Under the Supplemental Security Income Disability program, all beneficiaries are limited to a maximum amount that is paid based on a “federal amount” and a state supplemental amount, if any. 

See http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/statessi.html.

 

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Clinton and Obama on Social Security Disability and SSI Disability

 

In their campaigns to become the presidential nominees of their party, both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama endorsed the Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Disability programs.

 

One year ago, in response to a long questionnaire on disability, the presidential candidates also answered one question specific to the Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income Disability programs.

 

Of the candidates still in the race as of April, 2008, Senators Clinton and Obama responded; Senator McCain did not.

 

The questionnaire on disability topics for the presidential candidates was put together by four organizations: ADAPT, the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), and Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE).  The responses on all the questions may be seen at http://www.aapd-dc.org/index.php.  Other candidate responses and statements are also posted on the website.

 

Both Senators Clinton and Obama endorsed work opportunities for Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income Disability (this was a focus of the questionnaire for all disabled). 

 

Senator Obama stated that people with disabilities who cannot support themselves through work should have adequate income and health insurance.  He noted that the “SSDI” and “SSI” programs must satisfy both goals.  Senator Obama endorsed access to health insurance for people who were able to return to work after being on the SSDI or SSI “rolls.”

 

Senator Obama denounced the “unconscionable delays” for individuals applying for disability benefits.  He also stated that he was committed to increasing Social Security Administration funding and “streamlining the current application and appeals procedures.”

 

In speaking of the delays in the application process, Senator Obama referred to the disability program (in the singular as only one program) as the “Social Security Supplemental Security Income (SSI)” program.  He then noted the “confusion that surrounds this important program.”

 

Senator Clinton stated that the programs provided an “invaluable safety net for those individuals that might need government assistance.”  She emphasized that she was committed to helping beneficiaries of “SSI and SSDI,” would look at how the programs should be improved, “including by increasing the benefit level.”  The website also contains a separate statement in which Senator Clinton addressed the Social Security Administration backlogs–http://www.aapd-dc.org/News/election/071210shc.htm.  In this questionnaire, Senator Clinton noted that she had cosponsored legislation to phase out the waiting period for disabled individuals to become eligible for Medicare benefits.  In reference to the disability programs, Senator Clinton identified them as “Social Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance.”

 

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Issue Tracking System

  

A modern conveniences I have come to rely on is the Issue Tracking System used by software companies and Internet service companies, such as the virus protection companies and web hosting companies.  See the entry in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issue_tracking_system.

 

No human being is perfect, and no service is perfect.  But with an Issue Tracking System ticket, you have proof of your place in the queue and the formality of your problem or question.  You have proof that you called and you can document whether your problem was resolved or not.

The article in Wikipedia describes the system (as typically involving a computer user) as follows:  A ticket is a file contained within a issue tracking system which contains information about support interventions made by technical support staff or third parties on behalf of an end user who has reported an incident that is preventing them from working with their computer as they would expect to be able to. Tickets are commonly created in a help desk or call center environment. Typically the ticket will have a unique reference number, also known as a case, issue or call log number which is used to allow the user or support staff to quickly locate, add to or communicate the status of the users issue or request.

I had a recent experience in trying to set up new services where there was no Issue Tracking System in place with my former telephone and Internet provider in which everything went wrong.  I quickly realized that I was at great disadvantage because I could not refer to an Issue Tracking System ticket. 

 

In my consumer-complaint letter to the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Consumer Division, I suggested that if the company could not demonstrate improvements in its customer service that adoption of a problem-tracking-system be mandated.

 

On reflection, I think the Issue Tracking System should be required of telecommunications, cable and satellite businesses. Communication and information access are services that many of us expect and rely upon and for which we pay high rates.  The telecommunications, cable and satellite businesses are near-monopolies.   With multi-million dollar compensation packages for chief executives, the elimination of lifetime job protection and the deceased or non-existence of morale of many employees, customer service is not a guarantee.

 

Initially legislation should permit the businesses to designs their own Issue Tracking Systems subject to government audit.

 

If this solutions works with the telecommunications, cable and satellite businesses maybe it could be tried on government agencies.  Even Social Security and Medicare.

  

All original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Links to media coverage about Social Security

Articles re Social Security:

April 1, 2008–NY Times–Insurers Faulted as Overloading Social Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/business/01disabled.html?th&emc=th

For links to articles and television reports about the Social Security Disability backlog, see http://www.nosscr.org/coverage.html

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

All photographs and original content © 2008 Patricia A. Petow.  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.