Social Security claims to improve a major practice called unfair by critics, here’s what you need to know

The Social Security Administration announced Monday that it is making a major change that could help more people qualify for disability benefits.

The change concerns a practice the program uses to determine whether a disability applicant could, in fact, find other employment based on their abilities, which could result in benefits being denied.

To make this decision, the SSA relies on a job database to determine whether there are jobs the applicant can still fill. But critics have called the database unfair and imperfect, given that it was last updated in 1977 and includes dozens of outdated occupations.

These occupations include reptile breeder, railway telegraph operator and watch repairer – jobs that the SSA says will now be removed from the database. The decision comes after The Washington Post highlighted the case of a disabled applicant who had worked as an electrician but was rejected after a judge determined he could get a job as a nut sorter, d stud inspector or egg processor, all professions which effectively no longer exist.

“It makes sense to identify occupations that now exist in very limited numbers in the national economy,” Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in a statement. “By making this update, our decision-makers will no longer cite these jobs when denying a disability claim.”

The changes will apply to both the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The first pays benefits to people who cannot work because they have a health problem that will last at least a year or could result in death. The latter program is aimed at people with disabilities who also have low incomes.

The Social Security and Department of Veterans Affairs disability programs have been deemed “high risk” by the Government Accountability Office, a term it applies to federal programs that are vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse or that require redesign to meet their needs. efficiency. Both programs use “outdated criteria to decide whether individuals are eligible for benefits,” the GAO said in an April study.

The change is “huge,” Anansi Wilson, a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, wrote Monday on X, the old Twitter. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but HUGE, especially for disabled people of color, who are more likely to be denied access. Hoping for immediate relief for the thousands of people now in front of the court !”

What jobs are being eliminated?

The Social Security Administration announced it was removing 114 occupations from the database, which includes more than 12,000 job types. SSA adjudicators can no longer use a “not disabled” finding in an applicant’s case by citing one of these jobs as an example of work they might perform, the agency said.

Some of the jobs eliminated include:

1. Canary breeder
2. Character impersonator
3. Directory Assistance Operator
4. Historian of the dramatic arts
5. Cinema projectionist
6. Newswire photo operator
7. Radiotelegraph operator
8. Reptile breeder
9. Watch repairer

The Social Security Administration said it will now consider only the most relevant occupations when deciding when a person seeking disability benefits can work in other jobs.

The changes “will make life easier for millions of people,” the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy wrote on X on Monday.