Recently Rep. Steve Israel D-New York, announced he would introduce a bill in Congress that would eliminate Social Security’s five-month waiting period to receive disability benefits for the terminally ill under the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.
Currently, anyone who has been approved for SSDI has to wait five months before they can collect their first payment.
Currently the SSDI waiting period consists of five full calendar months in a row that the SSDI approved applicant has to wait before payments begin, even though they were found disabled five months earlier.
Israel made his announcement at a press conference March 29 with Susan Young by his side. Young, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in October, was medically approved for SSDI soon after filing her application, but learned that she would not receive a payment until five months later. Israel says he will introduce his bill when congress returns from its recess.
Israel’s bill would not eliminate the five-month waiting period for anyone except SSDI applicants who had a terminal illness. There are currently instances where the five-month waiting period does not apply. This includes applicants who were previously entitled to disability benefits, taken off benefits, and again became disabled. The other two instances apply to those who are entitled to childhood disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries. The SSI payments that recipients receive are not based on work history like SSDI payments.
The origin of the five-month waiting period was that it ensures Social Security that benefits are not paid to people who do not have long-term disabilities, but no provisions were ever made about applicants who were terminally ill.
For more information about Israel’s proposal click here.
To learn more about Social Security’s five-month waiting period and the rationale behind it click here.
