U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) pressed Social Security Administration is pressing official Susan Wilschke on the need to eliminate excessive waiting periods for terminally ill disability beneficiaries.
Susan Wilschke and William Morton testified this week Senate Committee on Finance hearing titled “Work and Social Security Disability Benefits: Addressing Challenges and Creating Opportunities.”
“For more than a decade, I’ve been very concerned and carrying what I believe is common sense legislation to help individuals who have terminal illnesses receive timely access to their earned disability benefits.
“For someone who’s diagnosed with a terminal illness and given less than six months to live, they are literally running out of time.
“That’s why in the past, I’ve sponsored bipartisan legislation – the Expedited Disability Insurance Payments for Terminally Ill Individuals Act – and been joined in the past by senators from this committee, both sides of the aisle, to fix this massive problem. The bill ends the five-month disability insurance waiting period for those diagnosed with a terminal illness that have less than six months to live.
“In 2023 alone, more than 30,000 people died waiting for disability decisions to come from Social Security. That’s even before their five-month wait begins. So, a policy that forces people with a terminal illness to wait five months when they don’t really have another five months is a terrible policy.
“For people with terminal illness, they usually can’t work at all. On top of the loss of income, enormous expenses from medical treatments, other unexpected costs kick in. In many cases, spouses, family members have to take time off just to help support that individual.
“There’s no reason for someone who has paid in to have to wait five months, especially when they don’t have that much time left. So Congress rightfully terminated the five-month waiting period for people with ALS in 2020.
“Can you explain why it would make sense for Congress to make a similar common sense exception for terminally individuals with less than six months to live?”
Follow Up:
“Beyond working with me, can you explain to the people who are watching why it would make sense for Congress to make a common sense exception for terminally ill individuals?”
“Mr. Morton, how can we improve an individual’s well-being?
“You mentioned in your testimony a report titled ‘Lessons from SSA Demonstrations for Disability Policy and Future Research.’ The report had an interesting discovery concerning the non-monetary benefits of work.
“The researchers found that even without much of an increase in earnings, greater employment could reflect improvements in well-being for people who are SSA beneficiaries and recipients.
“Forty-five percent of beneficiaries and recipients reported they had significant goals that included working, advancing their careers.
“For some, their disability is an enormous impairment to achieving their career goals and returning back to work.
“There are also those for whom going back to work is the very thing they need to improve their mental health and their personal well-being, not the money side of it, but the other aspects of their identity in terms of the value of work.
“For those who want to get back to work and whose condition may have improved enough to take on more employment, what seems to be the biggest barrier for them to return to work?”
Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks on eliminating waiting periods.
