The legislation was introduced in the Senate by U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Mike Lee (R-UT), according to the article. In the House of Representatives, a similar bill was introduced by Rep. French Hill (R-AR). The Return to Work Act is still in its infancy, but from what has been stated thus far, new beneficiaries would be broken up into four groups, including:
- Medical Improvement Expected
- Medical Improvement Likely
- Medical Improvement Possible
- Medical Improvement Not Expected
In defense of their bill, the Senators cite research which showed that the number of SSDI beneficiaries rose from 1.4 million in 1970 to nearly 9 million today, according to the article. Furthermore, the cost of the program has risen from $20 billion to $137 billion during the same time period. Senator Cotton has stated that only one-half of one percent of SSDI recipients return to work and discontinue their coverage, but the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) data (current through 2016), indicate that last year 8.81 percent of SSDI recipients were removed from SSI rolls in 2016. That is 830,044 out of a total 8,808,736 beneficiaries.
If the bill is passed and new beneficiaries are broken up into subjective categories, it will work something like the following.
- Improvement is Expected: SSDI benefits would automatically terminate after two years.
- Improvement is Likely: SSDI benefits would terminate after five years.
- Improvement Possible: no automatic cutoff.
- Improvement Not Expected: no automatic cutoff.
If you live in Southern California and are experiencing problems with an SSDI or SSI application, please contact Driscoll Law Corporation for a free consultation.