In September, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 was signed into law. The act helped establish a budget for 2016 and it also helped people with disabilities get the full benefits they need. However, the new budget doesn’t solve all of the Social Security Disability Insurance program’s problems.
Will The Senate Continue SSDI Reforms?
As we have said before, many problems continue to plague the SSDI system. There is an ever increasing need among the people for disability coverage, and the budget seems to be constantly shrinking. That is why the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 had to divert funds from the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund so the SSDI trust could avoid running out of money this year, but there’s still work to be done.
The SSDI trust is now funded through 2022, but the solution was only a temporary fix, and now Senators need to look toward the future. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and our very own Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) have drafted a letter to the Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch to push for more reforms to help our SSDI system become more sustainable.
What Did The Letter Say?
The letter urged the Senate Finance Committee to make a good faith effort to review proposals on how to fix the SSDI program. It said that the Senate needed to focus on detecting overpayments, creating a plan to get people back to work instead of remaining on disability, and finding ways to speed up the application process so wait times can be reduced.
For now, the only solution to the problems in the SSDI system is to hire a disability attorney who knows how best to handle the bumps in the road ahead. Keep following our blog to find out about those bumps, and tell us your ideas for fixing the disabilities claim system by logging on to our Twitter and Facebook pages.
