Substantial Gainful Activity for 2019

To be eligible for Social Security disability benefits, a person must be unable to engage in “substantial gainful activity” (SGA). A person who is working and earning more than a certain monthly amount is ordinarily considered to be engaging in SGA. The amount of monthly earnings considered as SGA depends on the nature of a person’s disability. The Social Security Act specifies a higher SGA amount for statutorily blind individuals, whereas federal regulations specify a lower SGA amount for non-blind individuals. Both SGA amounts generally change every year with the cost of living adjustment (COLA).

The monthly SGA amount for statutorily blind individuals for 2019 is $2040. For non-blind individuals, the monthly SGA amount for 2019 is $1220.

Remember that SGA relates only to the money you earn from working. Passive income, such income from investments or retirement funds, unemployment income, alimony, or child support are not considered SGA. However, passive income may affect your eligibility for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.

If you or someone you know are unable to work due to a medical condition, please contact us for a free evaluation of your claim!

See:

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/sga.html (SGA amounts by year)

https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1572.htm (definition of SGA)

https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1574.htm (more on SGA)

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

Lawsuit Seeks Equal Assistance for Guam Residents with Disabilities

A Guam resident with a permanent disability has sued the Social Security Administration in the U.S. District Court of Guam, challenging the inability of Guam residents to receive support payments under the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The failure to provide benefits to people on Guam with disabilities violates the Organic Act and also the equal protection clauses of the Constitution, the lawsuit states.

Residents of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are eligible for SSI payments because the benefit is included in the CNMI covenant with the United States; however, residents of the other U.S. territories, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, were intentionally excluded from the SSI program, which started in 1972.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Guam resident Katrina Schaller, notes that her twin sister, Leslie, suffers from the same debilitating genetic disorder – myotonic dystrophy – but receives about $800 a month in SSI because she lives in Pennsylvania, not Guam.

“Katrina is denied eligibility for federal SSI benefits solely because she lives on Guam, rather than in any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia or the nearby territory of the CNMI,” her lawsuit states.

The lawsuit further notes that Katrina Schaller received the benefits when she lived with her mother in Pennsylvania, “But when she moved to Guam to be with family upon her mother’s death, Katrina’s SSI benefits were cut off.” The lawsuit also states that Leslie Schaller also wants to travel to Guam to see her sisters, “but she cannot do so for more than 30 days for fear of losing access to the SSI benefits necessary for her support.”

The lawsuit asks the court to find that provisions of the SSI law discriminate based on status as a Guam resident and are unconstitutional, and to prevent the Social Security Administration from enforcing those provisions.

Source: https://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2018/12/07/lawsuit-seek-equal-assistance-guam-residents-disabilities/2236363002/

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC^®

The Beginning of the End for Prototype States

Before a case for Social Security disability benefits may be filed in federal court, claimants must give the Social Security Administration (SSA) an opportunity to review the claim and render a final agency decision. Administratively, there are typically four stages of review: initial determination, reconsideration, a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), and review by the Appeals Council.

The initial determination in each state is made by Disability Determination Services (DDS), which applies strict guidelines set forth in the Programs and Operations Manual (POMS). If a claim is denied initially, most states have a reconsideration process which allows a different examiner at DDS to review the case again before the claimant may file a request for a hearing.

In 1997, the SSA introduced a redesign program to bypass the reconsideration process, allowing claimants to file a request for a hearing immediately after the initial determination in ten (prototype) states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Michigan, Louisiana, Missouri, Colorado, Alaska, and parts of California. The intent was to achieve earlier decisions and shorter wait times. Yet, in a 2010 statement before the House Ways and Means Commission, the SSA found the opposite was true of its implementation in prototype states.

This past summer, the SSA announced plans to reinstate the reconsideration process in those prototype states, citing to data from a 2001 detailed study of the prototype procedure as well as the need for a uniform process. The announcement spurred opposition from legislators in both parties, who criticized the 2001 data as obsolete and cited to shorter wait times in the prototype states since the inception of the redesign program. Without more recent data and analysis from the SSA, it may be difficult to predict the likely effects. Still, others have suggested that such broad changes to our Social Security program ought to be handled by a duly appointed Commissioner confirmed by the Senate, though there has not been one since the Bush Administration.

Several prototype states will now be instituting reconsideration on January 1, 2019: California (Los Angeles North and Los Angeles West), Colorado, Louisiana, New Hampshire and New York. This means that for any case in which an initial denial is issued on or after January 1, 2019, in those states, the next level of appeal is to file a request for reconsideration, not a request for an ALJ hearing.

Reconsideration is scheduled to be reinstituted in Pennsylvania on April 1, 2019. Alabama and Michigan are scheduled to start reconsideration on October 1, 2019; Missouri on January 1, 2020; and Alaska on March 1, 2020.

https://www.ssa.gov/legislation/testimony_042710.html

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/social-security-subcommittee-questions-changes-to-social-securitys-disability-appeals-process/

https://nosscr.org/senators-to-berryhill-do-not-reintroduce-reconsideration/

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC^®