Pittsburgh Social Security Disability Law Blog

America's Social Security system has come under fire recently for being too lenient and not cost-effective. The program was originally started by the federal government 1956 to help older workers with significant impairments that made them unable to work. It was expanded to support those with serious disabilities. Since then, Social Security disability benefits have degraded into a crutch for those with mild disabilities who do not desire to work and, recently, a kind of unemployment insurance not only for residents of Pittsburgh, but throughout the nation.

Mathematica, a policy research company, recently released a report critiquing the current Social Security disability system along with suggestions for improvement. Their Center for Studying Disability Policy stated that the current disability system has two major structural flaws: It encourages life-long impairment and is inconsistent across the country.

Pittsburgh residents who rely on Social Security or Supplemental Security Income should notice an increase in their monthly checks to the tune of 3.6 percent. This cost of living adjustment is the first for Social Security benefits since 2009. In March 2011, it was estimated that the COLA would be an increase of 1.2 percent. Due to inflation, however, that percentage has tripled.

Social Security's COLA is based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. That number is compared in the third quarter from one year to the next.

With such a long list of applicants waiting for Social Security disability benefits in Pennsylvania and throughout the country, the Social Security Administration cannot or does not always grant benefits in time to aid those most in need. Applicants sometimes die during the process and it happens often enough that there is a code for appeals that have been dismissed because the applicant is deceased. There have been more than 15,000 cases since 2005 that have been labeled with this code.

One man who applied for SSDI benefits, but never lived to see them was a 50-year-old man with colon cancer. After he was diagnosed with colon cancer in February 2009, he applied for disability benefits. He was initially denied and his first appeal was also denied because they said he did not give enough medical records.

Americans with disabilities in the Pittsburgh area and throughout the United States may have an easier time finding jobs, thanks to a new plan from the Labor Department. The plan would set a goal for companies with federal contracts to hire disabled workers, who are greatly under-represented in the workforce. The goal would be 7 percent; the rule would only apply to contractors with at least 50 employees and a minimum $50,000 government contract. About 170,000 contractors would be affected.

The new rule would put President Obama well on his way to meeting his goal to increase employment among those with disabilities. In 2010, he signed an executive order setting the goal of 100,000 jobs for the disabled over five years.