Thread: Senator: Non-English Speakers Qualify for Disability Benefits More Quickly

Senator: Non-English Speakers Qualify for Disability Benefits More Quickly

Disability Enrollees Increased by 230 Percent

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) / AP

BY: Elizabeth Harrington
May 1, 2014 1:00 pm

The inability to speak English is now considered a determining factor to receive federal disability benefits.

Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) sent a letter obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon to Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin on Thursday, raising concerns regarding revelations that individuals who cannot speak English are fast-tracked for disability approval.

“I write to express my concerns about the expanding number of individuals now qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and to raise a specific issue, the basis for many of these individuals’ disability classification, where the inability to speak English is a determinative factor,” Sessions said.

Sessions revealed a policy for SSDI payments that allows individuals to qualify for benefits more quickly if “they are incapable of communicating in English.”

The Social Security Act allows for the consideration of education when deciding if an individual is disabled. “The education factor is not limited to actual education as it relates to schooling, but includes a linguistic limitation on the ability to communicate in the English language,” Sessions said.

According to the Act, “Since the ability to speak, read and understand English is generally learned or increased at school, we may consider this an educational factor.”

Sessions said he is concerned that the administration is “misconstruing” this part of the Social Security Act, to approve disability applications solely on this factor.

In fact, former SSA judges have testified that individuals have been approved for disability without having to prove they cannot speak English.

On July 22, 2012 Administrative Law Judge Larry Butler had an “on-the-record conversation” in English with a claimant who did not have a lawyer. The individual then requested to postpone the hearing to find an attorney.

“Once the claimant found an attorney, even though he was capable of speaking English, the claimant’s lawyer demanded to have an interpreter at the hearing,” the letter said.

Sessions said there are only two questions asked at hearings, including, “Can you speak and understand English?” and “Can you read and understand English?”

“If the applicant answers ‘no’ to these questions, the [Administrative Law Judge] does not probe any further,” he said.
“It is difficult to see how someone is a U.S. citizen and incapable of speaking or reading the English language,” Sessions added. “In one case handled by Judge Butler, the claimant answered ‘no’ to both questions in a January 2012 hearing, but had been naturalized as a U.S. citizen in August 1987. As, you know, naturalization requires individuals to have a working knowledge of the English language.”

Social Security Administrative Law Judge Drew A. Swank also testified that, “there is no burden of proof placed on the individual to demonstrate an inability to communicate in English” at hearings.

In addition, the Hearings Appeal and Litigation Law Manual (HALLEX) requires that “an interpreter be provided at the request of a claimant, even if the claimant is capable of speaking English.”

“This makes it difficult for an Administrative Law Judge to adequately determine English proficiency,” Sessions said. “Once an interpreter is provided, the claimant, perhaps under instructions from his lawyer, never speaks a word of English at the hearing.”

Enrollment in SSDI, which is intended to provide income for Americans who are unable to work, has ballooned in recent years. Roughly 6.7 million individuals received benefits in 2000, a number that grew to 11 million in 2012. Approximately $175 billion worth of benefit payments were disbursed in 2011.

“The population of the United States grew by 9.7 percent between 2000 and 2010, but the number of SSDI applications grew by 230 percent,” Sessions noted.

“This is an unsustainable path,” he said. “Indeed, benefit payments are already exceeding tax revenues collected for SSDI and the trust fund is projected to reach exhaustion in as little as two years.”

In order to be eligible, an individual must not be able to do work that they did before, or “you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition.”

“SSDI was specifically created for those whose loss of employment was caused by injury or some other medical condition,” Sessions said. “Today, however, widespread anecdotal accounts reveal that a number of people immediately file for SSDI after being laid off or losing their job for reasons unrelated to injury or illness.”

In light of his concerns, Sessions is asking the SSA to provide a list of the total number of interpreters provided during a hearing process for disability determination in the last five years.

In addition, he asks, “what age does your agency believe an individual is incapable of learning to speak in English” and whether SSDA is limited to American citizens, and if not, “how many non-citizens are now receiving benefits?”

“Individuals who have been naturalized as U.S. citizen can and should be able to communicate in English,” Sessions said. “The Administration has an enormous responsibility to ensure that benefits are paid only to those who are truly disabled.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/senator-non-english-speakers-qualify-for-disability-benefits-more-quickly/

Senator To Social Security Commissioner: Unwillingness To Speak And Read English Is Not A Disability

May 2, 2014 by Sam Rolley

THINKSTOCK

Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, sent a letter to the acting director of the Social Security Administration this week seeking answers about why a person’s inability to speak English has become a determining factor in fast-tracking applicants who want to join the Nation’s ever-expanding disability dole.
“I write to express my concerns about the expanding number of individuals now qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and to raise a specific issue, the basis for many of these individuals’ disability classification, where the inability to speak English is a determinative factor,” the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee wrote to Commissioner Carolyn Colvin.
The lawmaker was referencing the Social Security Act’s medical-vocational allowance that takes into consideration an applicant’s physical ability, age, education and work experience in determining eligibility for disability benefits.
“The education factor is not limited to actual education as it relates to schooling, but includes a linguistic limitation on the ability to communicate in English,” Sessions wrote. “I’m concerned that the Administration might be construing [the section], which requires that a claimant’s ‘physical, mental, educational, or linguistic limitation of such individual (including lack of facility with the English language)’ be taken into account when making disability determinations.”
The lawmaker said that, as the U.S.’s non-English-speaking population swells, the already insolvent Social Security system can’t afford to provide benefits to people aren’t necessarily disabled, but can’t speak English because it is not their first language, in the same way benefits might be given to individuals with disabilities that make it impossible for them to read, speak or understand English.
“[T]he number of non-English-speaking workers in the United States is growing substantially in the United States and in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, English might not be the predominant language, but I believe this ‘education’ rule applies in Puerto Rico,” Sessions wrote. “Indeed, in 2010, 63 percent of the applicants in Puerto Rico were awarded disability benefits. In one instance, shortly after 300 workers at a Puerto Rico plant was closed down, 290 of the workers filed for SSDI.”
The lawmaker went on to provide examples of cases in which claimants had obviously abused the system.
“The procedure for determining whether someone can speak English is not exhaustive,” Sessions explained. “There are two questions asked: ‘Can you speak and understand English?’; and, ‘Can you read and understand English?’”
Answering ‘no’ to the simple questions, Sessions pointed out, puts a claimant on the disability fast-track.
In 2000 there were fewer than 6.7 million people in the United States receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits— by 2012 the number ballooned to just under 11 million. In his letter Sessions pointed out that the figures represent a 230 percent increase in the number of SSDI recipients, far outpacing the overall U.S. population growth of 9.7 percent during the same period of time.
To put those numbers in perspective, Sessions referenced an Investor’s Business Daily article which noted that the number of new disability recipients was twice the number of people who started new jobs between 2009 and April 2012.
“This is an unsustainable path,” Sessions wrote. “Indeed, benefit payments are already exceeding tax revenues collected for SSDI and the trust fund is projected to reach exhaustion in as little as two years.”

http://personalliberty.com/senator-s...sh-disability/

Every Public Assistance Agency here in NYC passes out benefits in the same way to any non-English speaking applicant that merely claims to be here legally. There is absolutely no verification of legal status ever!

Disability Policy Reportedly Fast-Tracks Applicants Who Can’t Speak English



by Fox News Insider // May 03 2014 // 12:00pm
As seen on Fox and Friends Weekend

Video at the Page Link:

No English? No problem! A little known Social Security policy considers a person’s ability to learn English when determining disability eligibility.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) sent a letter to Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Carolyn Colvin last week to express concerns about a disability policy that may fast-track Americans who can’t speak English.

The policy allows people to qualify for benefits more quickly if “they are incapable of communicating in English.”

---

Report: Elderly Man Tries and Fails TWICE to Convince Gov't He Hadn't Died

---

Elizabeth Harrington, of the Washington Free Beacon, explained the policy on “Fox and Friends.”
“It's almost a loophole. It's a little policy that Sen. Sessions is worried is being misconstrued by the Social Security Administration,” she said.
Harrington pointed out that Social Security disability insurance is meant for American citizens who can no longer work due to physical or mental impairment. To become an American citizen, one must demonstrate a basic knowledge of the English language. However, at these hearings, Harrington said that applicants are saying through an interpreter that they can’t speak English.

---

Gov’t to Stop Seizing Tax Refunds From Americans Over Parents' Debts

---

Disability applications have gone up 230 percent in the last decade, according to a report.
Watch Harrington’s full interview above.

Posted in: // Disability // Social Security // English // Jeff Sessions // Elizabeth Harrington

Leave a Comment

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/05/03...-speak-english

Me No Spik Inglis – “Earns” Fast Track To Social Security Disability Benefits

Posted on 3 May, 2014 by Rick Wells



An investigation by Senator Jeff Sessions and his Senate Budget Committee, into why there has been such an explosion in the disability rolls, revealed some disturbing information.

They uncovered a policy on the part of the Social Security Administration which incorporates a person’s inability to speak English into the decision making process as to whether or not they qualify for benefits.

That consideration has now eroded to the point that virtually anyone who claims an inability to speak English is approved and lawyers are demanding that an interpreter be present at hearings, even when the applicant can speak English, in order to “guarantee” approval for undeserved benefits.



The abuse of the system seems to be particularly rampant in Puerto Rico.

Rick Wells is a conservative author who believes an adherence the U.S. Constitution would solve many of today’s problems. “Like” him on Facebook and “Follow” him on Twitter.


http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/05/0...lity-benefits/

Originally Posted by Newmexican

Sessions revealed a policy for SSDI payments that allows individuals to qualify for benefits more quickly if “they are incapable of communicating in English.”

The Social Security Act allows for the consideration of education when deciding if an individual is disabled.... According to the Act, “Since the ability to speak, read and understand English is generally learned or increased at school, we may consider this an educational factor.”

Sessions said he is concerned that the administration is “misconstruing” this part of the Social Security Act, to approve disability applications solely on this factor.

'Bamacrats seem to revel in thumbing their noses at Americans.
*************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade