Trump administration cuts to Social Security disability benefits among the cruelest – USA TODAY

Rebecca Vallas, Opinion contributor Published 6:39 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2020 | Updated 12:55 p.m. ET Jan. 28, 2020

Hardly a day goes by without the Trump administration finding a new way to slash the safety net.

But its latest proposal which would cut Social Security disability benefits by $2.6 billion over 10 years is one of the cruelest. It would require millions of beneficiaries to re-prove their disability and navigate a complex web of red tape and paperwork every two years. Hundreds of thousands of people could lose benefits even though their condition has not changed.

Weve seen this movie before, when the Reagan administration implemented a similar policy. People with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, serious mental illness and even terminal cancer were notified they were no longer disabled and their benefits terminated.All told, half a million people lost benefits. Thousands died, many by suicide. President Ronald Reagans disability purge caused such suffering, it sparked a bipartisan revolt by 18 states that refused to implement it. Ultimately, a rare unanimous vote by Congress ended the nightmarish policy in 1984.

Proving eligibility for benefits is an arduous process that can take months if not years, and hundreds, if not thousands of pages of medical evidence. America has among the strictest eligibility standards in the world. Over 60% of applications are denied, and tens of thousands of people die each year waiting for benefits.

OUR VIEW: Reserve benefits for disabled workers, not displaced ones

Living with disability.(Photo: David Eulitt/The Kansas City Star via AP)

While vital, benefits are so modest averaging roughly $1,200 per month for Social Security Disability Insurance and $536 for Supplemental Security Income that many beneficiaries live in poverty. Unspeakable hardship will result if this proposal takes effect.

The Trump administration like Reagans claims that the proposal is about efficiency. But thats hard to square with the administrations own accounting, finding that the new policy would cost nearly as much to administer ($1.8 billion) as it would save over 10 years by taking away survival benefits. But as with the rest of the Trump safety net cuts, the cruelty seems to be the point.

Rebecca Vallas, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is a former legal aid lawyer who represented people with disabilities.

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Trump administration cuts to Social Security disability benefits among the cruelest - USA TODAY