There's one goal that Democrats and Republicans can get behind: Helping people with disabilities who are currently drawing Social Security to find paying work.
The Biden campaign outlined several proposals to benefit Americans with disabilities -- starting with enforcing laws already on the books. Biden's disability goals include a whole section on expanding "competitive, integrated employment opportunities for people with disabilities."
That's a welcome change. The Trump administration said that the country could save $49 billion over five years if only disabled Americans could join the work force and stop taking Social Security benefits.
That figure is more like $3.5 billion over five years, according to Social Security expert David Weaver. "The vast majority of beneficiaries do not [work] for the simple reason that their health prevents them from working," he writes.
Still, it's an attractive goal, if only to give people with disabilities the independence and agency many long for.
But how do we do it? Weaver touts tweaking an existing program as a route to bipartisan action. That program is ‘Ticket to Work,’ created in 1999.
TTW helps with planning (via Work Incentives Planning and Assistance organizations -- WIPAs -- who know the legal ropes), and job preparation and placement.
The WIPAs guide the would-be working disabled through a mess of work incentives and another mess of tax regulations for the impact of earned income on Social Security benefits, among other things.
Job prep and placement once went exclusively through state Vocational Rehabilitation agencies. [Full disclosure: I use two excellent hearing aids that were provided to me through a Texas VR program.] The TTW program added the option of using private-sector Employment Networks for job placement.
Weaver says TTW could use more funding for WIPAs and a way for young people with disabilities to transition into the program.
Sounds good to us! Let's get on our phones to Congress starting January 21st.
Do you think that disabled people on Social Security who can work, even if it's menial work, should be required to take jobs? (We suspect that this was the unstated goal of Trumpian "reforms" in Social Security for the disabled.) If not, how can we make sure that the work option remains voluntary? Do you think people with disabilities should get a special boost when it comes to finding work -- i.e. employment incentives for the company that hires these people?
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