Senator Ron Wyden
Chairman
Senate Committee on Finance
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Mike Crapo
Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Finance
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

RE: June 18, 2024 Hearing on “Work and Social Security Disability Benefits: Addressing Challenges and Creating Opportunities”

Dear Chairman Wyden and Ranking Member Crapo,

Thank you for holding this hearing on the important topic of barriers to workforce participation for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries.

The Arc is the largest national community-based organization advocating for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families. Our nearly 600 state and local chapters across the United States provide a wide range of services for people with IDD, including individual and systems advocacy, public education, family support, systems navigation, support coordination services, employment, housing, support groups, and recreation. Nearly half of all SSI child beneficiaries and around one in three adults on SSI have an intellectual or developmental disability. As a result, protecting and improving SSI and other Social Security disability benefits has been a longstanding focus of The Arc’s advocacy work.

We often hear from our networks about how outdated rules and administrative burdens for both beneficiaries and employers can limit opportunities for people with disabilities to work. For example, the parent of a disabled person in Texas shared how navigating these requirements pose challenges for employers:

“My adult son received Social Security benefits as a young adult. He has autism. He graduated high school and then community college, but needed these benefits while he tried to get a full-time job.

Social Security’s outdated rules made it almost impossible for him to do that. He worked part-time for a small, veteran-owned company for a while, but they let him go after Social Security sent the first batch of paperwork. They felt so badly, but it was just too much of a burden for them.”

Multifaceted approaches are needed to modernize Social Security disability programs to increase opportunities for work, to provide support to help people with disabilities remain attached to the labor force, and to deliver the training, services, and supports that people with disabilities may need to return to work. Our comments will focus on three key issues highlighted in the hearing, including: (1.) restrictions on work-related income faced by Disabled Adult Child (DAC) beneficiaries; (2.) the SSI program’s grievously outdated asset limits, income limits, and earned-income disregards; and (3.) the impact of overpayments on both SSI and SSDI beneficiaries.

We are grateful for the substantial bipartisan attention and action that members of the Senate Finance Committee have undertaken this Congress to address each of these issues. We also commend the steps that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has taken this year to reduce the burden of overpayments on beneficiaries. Advancing the SSA’s important work in this and other critical activities geared towards improving services for millions of Social Security beneficiaries will require sustained and increased administrative funding in the FY2025 budget.

See full statement here.