Anecdotally, those of us who represent disability claimants know that when they are denied, they rarely just go right back to work. Even if they truly don’t meet the requirements for Social Security disability, the realities of the labor market can be pretty harsh, especially for unemployed people over age 50 with a serious medical condition. The article below discusses this:

Denied Disability Applicants Fare Badly in the Labor Market

Social Security has a lot of different benefits, for a lot of different people. Most everyone knows the SSA offers retirement and disability benefits to people that worked and paid into the system (and to some who didn’t, via SSI), but many don’t know that there are many ways for family members to receive benefits based on each other’s work records. Parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, widows and widowers, disabled adult children, etc.! Here are two articles discussing some of these benefits:

Social Security benefits for grandchildren

A local man’s fight at the Social Security office reveals spousal benefits you may not know about

(h/t to Terisa Page for the former article, and to Charles Hall’s Social Security News for the latter)

Some conditions are so serious that Social Security has flagged them for quick processing and approval. The list of those conditions is called the Compassionate Allowance list, and is now up to 233 different conditions. Many of them are rare conditions, including the five new conditions added to the list.

Social Security adds 5 Compassionate Allowance conditions

Event details available here:

https://disabilitylaw.osbar.org/event/disability-law-section-onld-joint-happy-hour-networking-event/

Many of us know that when people are sent to jail they are not eligible for Medicaid while incarcerated. What we don’t always think about is the systemic cost-shifting that occurs when those people’s healthcare is no longer covered by Medicaid, but by the state and local governments responsible for providing healthcare inside the jails and prisons. This article from CNN discusses that phenomenon, as well as the varying practices of the states in how hard they make it for the individuals to regain Medicaid coverage when they’re released:

The high cost of taking away prisoners’ Medicaid coverage

There’s also this this handy map that shows the impact of incarceration on Medicaid benefits in all 50 states. (Fair warning, some policies may have changed since the map was last updated in 2016).

(hat tip to our own Terisa Page Gault for finding the CNN article!)

Check out the article below on the Supreme Court’s review of whether a vocational expert’s testimony can be considered substantial evidence of other work available to disability applicants when the expert does not provide requested data to support their testimony.

https://www.courthousenews.com/supremes-to-tackle-expert-testimony-in-disability-cases/

Please join us for our June 1 CLE.  You can attend in person at the Oregon State Bar Center in Tigard or by webcast.  Register by May 28th for a $20 discount.  Get an even bigger discount by becoming a Disability Law Section member!

Click here for a brochure.

Click here to register for the live event.

Click here to register for the webcast.

We hope to see you there!

Today, we have another Social Security related article for you. This time, a very detailed and informative piece from Kathy Ruffing, of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, discussing the rising role of women in Social Security disability benefits.

Women and Disability Insurance: Five Facts You Should Know

(hat tip to our own Terisa Page, as usual, for pointing out this article!)

SSA’s Office of Inspector General issued a report recently discussing problems with how Social Security processes claims for retirement benefits by widows and widowers. (Link to the OIG report here).

That report, and some other SSA-related issues, are discussed in this recent article by Philip Moeller at PBS.org. “Watchdog reports reveal problems at the strained, underfunded Social Security Administration.”

Today, we have some links to some resources that are not specific to the disabled, but are definitely relevant to that population. These resources can help your clients save their homes!

Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative, which uses TARP money to fund several programs, including mortgage payment assistance, loan preservation advice, and loan refinancing assistance.

Oregon DOJ’s Consumer Protection Division has its own list of mortgage-related resources, as well (link).

And finally, there is similar help available for Washington clients, through the Washington State Attorney General (link).

I know my staff gives this kind of information out to clients frequently, so keep it handy!