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     From Newsweek : More than 140 lawmakers in the House and Senate have signed open letters hitting out at a "harmful and unjustified" Trump administration proposal that could see thousands of Americans lose their disability benefits. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those who put their names to the letters calling on the administration to scrap its proposed rule change, which would increase the frequency of disability reviews faced by some benefits recipients if it comes into effect. The Senate letter was signed by a total of 41 senators. Newsweek understands that more than 100 signatures have been collected on the House letter so far, with more to come. ...

     The Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) , the major umbrella group of organizations that help the disabled, has issued three recent statements concerning Social Security. CCD opposes the plan to increase the frequency and alter the targeting of continuing disability reviews. CCD supports expanding Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and Samoa. (By the way, does anyone know the status of litigation on this issue?) CCD supports ending the five month waiting period for Disability Insurance Benefits.

     From Common Dreams : "This policy change is abhorrent and absolutely unjustifiable." "We all know that the cruelty is the point with this administration, but this sinks to yet another low." "This would be a crushing blow to me and my family." Those are just a few of the more than 1,700 official comments members of the U.S. public have left on President Donald Trump's proposed Social Security rule change, which could strip lifesaving disability benefits from hundreds of thousands of people. The proposal received hardly any media attention when it was first published in the Federal Register in November. But recent reporting on the proposed rule change , as well as outrage from progressive Social Security advocates , sparked a flood of public condemnation and calls for the Trump administration to reverse course. Backlash against the proposal can be seen in the public comment section for the rule, where self-identified physicians , people wi...

     The Social Security portions of the Committee report (Social Security part begins at page 157) on the Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations bill covering the Social Security Administration that has been passed by Congress: The agreement includes an increase of $100,000,000 for SSA's base administrative expenses for additional hires and resources to improve public service at SSA field offices and direct service operations.  Continuing Disability Reviews . - The agreement directs SSA to include in its next continuing disability review (CDR) report to Congress an evaluation of its CDR prioritization models and a cost-benefit analysis of how it uses estimated savings in determining which beneficiaries receive a full-medical CDR . Additionally, the agreement requests in the fiscal year 2021 Congressional Justification, the process by which SSA intends to pace its CDR workload to properly manage Limitation on Administrative Expenses funding.   Disability Cas e Proces...

     From the Philadelphia Inquirer : The Trump administration is proposing changes to Social Security that could terminate disability payments to hundreds of thousands of Americans, particularly older people and children. The new rule would change aspects of disability reviews � the methods by which the Social Security Administration determines whether a person continues to qualify for benefits. Few recipients are aware of the proposal, which is open for public comment through January. ... The new rule, advocates for low-income Americans say, is just a way to push people off the disability rolls. �I have serious concerns about this proposed rule,� said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), adding that it �appears to be yet another attempt by the Trump administration to make it more difficult for people with disabilities to receive benefits.� ...      I don't trust the people behind this proposal at all. I'm sure their motivations are bad. They...

     Social Security will publish proposed regulations on the frequency of continuing disability reviews in the Federal Register on Monday. You can read the proposal today.      They propose to add a new category, Medical Improvement Likely (MIL), to be reviewed every two years. MIL is aimed at a group of impairments which they say fit between the categories of Medical Improvement Expected (MIE) and Medical Improvement Possible (MIP). They say they will include anxiety related disorders in this category. I don't understand that. Anxiety disorders don't respond well to treatment. Panic disorders, the most commonly disabling anxiety disorder, are quite unresponsive to treatment.      They propose to increase the frequency of reviews for the category of Medical Improvement Not Expected (MINE) from seven years to six years.      Overall, they expect to increase Continuing Disability Review (CDRs) by more than 1...

     From a notice from the Social Security Administration that will appear in tomorrow's Federal Register: We are announcing the fourteenth National Disability Forum . T he purpose of this public forum is to obtain feedback from experts in their field on what impairments have a likelihood to improve . This forum will be moderated , and include up to five panelist s present ing information on the topic. Additionally, there w ill be a combined question and answer session during which the panelists will address questions from those on site and received by email during the forum. DATES: Tuesday December 3, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ADDRESSES: Meeting Location: Partnership for Public Service , 1100 New York Ave NW , Suite 200 East , Washington, DC 20005 ...      The truth is that there are very few Social Security disability recipients who are likely to improve. Why? The one year duration requirement in the definition of disability enacted b...

     The Office of Management and Budget has cleared for publication in the Federal Register a package of proposed regulations on the frequency and notice of continuing disability reviews. This is only a proposal. The public may comment on the proposed rules. This proposal had been pending at OMB since March 13. That's an extraordinary time for a proposal to be pending, suggesting that there may be something controversial in the proposal. This is Social Security's vague description of the proposal published in the Unified Agenda last Spring: ... The proposed regulations would add a new category to our existing medical diary categories that we use to schedule CDRs and would revise the criteria we follow to place a case in each of the categories. They would also change how often we perform a CDR for claims with the medical diary category for permanent impairments. These revised regulations would ensure that we continue to identify medical improvement a...