Effective April 27, 2020

The Social Security Administration has decided to change a policy that has been in place for 40 years. The 40-year-old rule conditioned that if you didn't speak the language, well then that was a factor for an award of disability benefits. The old way of thinking would suppose that if you didn't speak English then you weren't able to do certain kinds of work, or even work at all.

However, the new rule effective April 27, 2020 changes this. Research at Mathematica took three factors into consideration in their study for the Social Security Administration: how old you are, work experience, and your level of education. The researchers concluded that there wasn't documentation in the literature proving that the effects of work experience, your age and education levels interfered with an ability to perform new work.

This infers that even though you don't speak English it probably doesn't affect your ability to learn a new skill, or your ability to engage in a new kind of work.The Administration has now adopted the policy to recognize that persons with a disability, who also lack the ability to communicate in English, are not profiled anymore as having an inability to work or transition to a new type of work.

Social Security also believes that even if you have a disability it may not limit you to perform certain types of other work. These are modern times and for those that do qualify for disability benefits, and want to work or transition back into the workforce, there are resources in place for you to gain assistance.

In 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that 79.2% of the disabled are unemployed. I make a point here that there are those who are successful in obtaining benefits, but would like to return to the workforce at some point. For those that are interested in returning to work, there is Ticket to Work which I've discussed in a prior blog. The State of Texas has services which may be of support for your work search efforts as well.

This blog is intended for information purposes only and does not establish legal representation or financial guidance.