U.S. Reps. Davis, Kind introduce Social Security bill to benefit terminally ill

June 24--WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) recently introduced H.R. 5347, the Social Security Disability Fairness Act, bipartisan legislation to expedite Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) payments for terminally ill individuals.

Current law requires individuals to wait five months before they can begin receiving benefits but many terminally ill individuals pass away before these benefits are received. H.R. 5347 would allow individuals with terminal illnesses to receive SSDI benefits within the first month.

"Our disability safety net is failing the very people it was put in place to help," said Davis. "My office has had several cases where an individual has passed away while waiting for Social Security disability benefits. The five-month wait period is making things even more difficult for individuals and their families struggling with a terminal illness. They cannot afford to wait on bureaucratic red tape. Our bill simply speeds up the process for qualifying individuals so they can begin receiving benefits within the first month."

"For terminally ill individuals and their families the last thing they should be worried about is whether they be able to pay their monthly bills. This legislation will give terminally ill individuals the certainty they deserve by ending the five month waiting period for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, and instead will allow them to begin collecting a portion of their benefits within the first month," said Kind.

Specifically, H.R. 5347 eliminates the five-month waiting period for any person diagnosed to be terminally ill and allows them to begin receiving benefits within the first month. "Terminally ill" is defined as a person that has a medical prognosis that his or her life expectancy is six months or less. To prevent fraud and abuse, at least two physicians who are unrelated and not in the same physician group practice, must certify that the individual is terminally ill.

Additionally, the bill requires a yearly report from the commissioner and the inspector general of the Social Security Administration on the number of people applying for and receiving the expedited SSDI benefits, as well as the costs of administering it. After four years, the bill requires a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) evaluating the changes to the SSDI program and providing recommendations on ways to improve upon it.

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