While the Social Security Administration and its clients adjust to a rule change that affects the way a judge can rule in disability claim cases, the agency itself is facing a dramatic cut under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 spending plan.
The Trump administration budget proposes to slice $72 billion over 10 years from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), the main program for workers who become disabled, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
That proposal, coupled with a second one that reduces the insurance pool where disability payments come from, has advocates worried there could be increased wait times for people seeking Social Security services. The system is already stretched thin as the baby boomers reach retirement age.
Stacy Cloyd, deputy director of governmental affairs for National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, said the cuts could add to the administrative backlog even more if the president shifts money from customer service to fraud detection.
Cuts to funding for the SSA aren’t new. Since 2010, the agency’s funding has decreased by 10 percent, when adjusted for inflation. Those reductions forced the SSA to impose several hiring freezes in the last few years, and SSA offices across the country have also been forced to reduce hours and, in some cases, close altogether.
Northampton lawyer James Winston, who represents clients filing disablity claims, said an SSA office in Greenfield closed a few years ago, funneling more people to the Holyoke office.
“It’s not as convenient, and it puts a huge strain on the Holyoke office to keep up with the work,” Winston said.
Nationally, people already wait an average of 18 months for benefits once they apply, though Winston said in western Massachusetts the wait is, on average, about a year.
For people who are unable to work and need benefits, Winston said a delay in receiving assistance could mean they can’t afford to pay rent. He said further cuts and increased waits could put more people at risk of becoming homeless.
The Trump administration proposes to achieve most of its reductions in SSDI funding — about $50 billion — by encouraging people with SSDI benefits to go back to work.
Currently, around 3.7 percent of people in the program leave because they’re gainfully employed again, according to a study published by the Center for Studying Disability Policy in 2011, the most recent information available.
Nearly all parties acknowledge that there is some fraud in the SSDI program, with able-bodied people receiving benefits, though assessments differ on how often this occurs.
In 2014, Carolyn Colvin, the SSA’s acting commissioner at the time, said evidence suggests disability fraud occurs in less than 1 percent of approved cases. However, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney seemed to point to fraud as an area for savings in a May interview with NBC News.
Advocates such as Cloyd say they doubt such projected saving are realistic because there are already multiple incentive programs to encourage SSDI recipients to go back to work and to detect fraud.
Trump’s other proposed savings would come mostly from a reduction in retroactive benefits.
People who wait to apply for disability assistance until after the onset of their disability are entitled to receive retroactive payments for the time between the onset of their condition and when they started the SSDI application.
Trump’s proposal, which would have to be introduced and approved by Congress to become law, would reduce the maximum amount of retroactive benefits people can receive from 12 months to six.
“This is money taken directly out of the pockets of people with disabilities,” said Cloyd, of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives. “People with SSDI need that money.”
For example, someone who became eligible for disability benefits in January 2017 but didn’t apply until January 2018 would, under current rules, still be compensated for that year in between. Trump’s proposal would allow retroactive payments only back to July 2017.
This would affect new applicants, Winston said, because people often wait to apply while they deal with their disability, which may have landed them in a hospital, or because they feel ashamed of needing help.