AUGUSTA, ME – During a disability and employment roundtable discussion this morning, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) announced five new proposals that would improve federal policy and increase employment opportunities for Mainers with disabilities.

The proposals come at a time when Maine faces a significant decline in the size of its workforce and a forecast that the state may be unable to supply new workers to meet its needs in the coming decades. At the same time, nearly 70 percent of the state’s working-age adults with disabilities are currently not engaged in the workforce, marking one of the lowest employment rates for individuals with disabilities in the country. Senator King’s proposals aim to increase employment among Maine’s citizens with disabilities by making changes to the federal Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs and by encouraging greater collaboration between the federal and state governments.

The proposals represent a starting point for an ongoing discussion. Following today’s roundtable, Senator King will continue to solicit feedback in the coming weeks and months, including from his colleagues in Washington, and will ultimately pursue a legislative path to adopt changes.

“Our state and our economy are strengthened when we have a more inclusive workforce. But today, federal policies seem to create more barriers to employment than opportunities,” Senator King. “Right now, there are people with disabilities across Maine who want to work and there are businesses that need their talents. The proposals I announced today are a first step toward bridging that gap and engaging more people with disabilities in the workforce. Doing so will not only improve their lives, but it will also bolster our economy and our future.”

Participants in the roundtable also expressed support for developing strategies to bring more Maine people with disabilities into the workforce:

“We must remove the disincentives to full and integrated employment for citizens with disabilities,” said Kim Moody, Executive Director of Disability Rights Maine. “We have to figure out how to allow people to keep their health insurance when they go to work. We have to figure out how to reconfigure Medicaid so that service provider agencies can bill more for employment-related services and less for non-employment related day programming services. We look forward to a federal-state partnership with Senator King. With all of us working together, I know we can improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.”

“Today, we have Maine people with disabilities who could be and want to be fully engaged in the workforce. When they are not, it is a loss for them, and a loss for Maine’s economy, which is why we are grateful that Senator King is leading this important discussion,” said Dana Connors, President and CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. “Expanding opportunities for people with disabilities is in the state’s economic best interest and is an effort Maine businesses are proud to support.”

Click HERE to read what other Maine leaders are saying about Senator King’s efforts.

At present, Maine lags behind a majority of states in workforce participation among its citizens with disabilities. In 2013, only 31 percent of the state’s working-age adults with disabilities were in the workforce. During that same year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) reported that 7.7 percent of working-aged adults in Maine received SSDI – the sixth highest rate of receipt in the country.

While the SSDI and SSI programs provide critical benefits to millions of Americans with disabilities each year, including more than 80,000 people in Maine, the programs have a dismal record of supporting beneficiaries in their efforts to return to the workforce. Long-term studies of SSDI beneficiaries demonstrate that less than four percent of beneficiaries leave the program for work. Many program recipients report confusion over how work activity will impact their benefits and access to health care, while others lack access to the kind of training and accommodations that could improve their ability to enter or remain in the workforce.

While this is a national challenge, it is particularly acute in Maine. The state’s looming demographic and economic shifts include predictions of a smaller workforce paired with growth of certain industry sectors in the years to come. These trends highlight the critical importance of providing increased support and incentives for individuals with disabilities who could transition off of federal and state programs to enter the workforce and fill these openings. These efforts are important not only to people with disabilities and to Maine’s economy, but also to the financial stability of federal disability programs.

To read the full white paper of proposals, click HERE.

Senator King’s proposals include the following:

1. Develop Early Intervention and Supports:

• Facilitate state-designed solutions, such as pilots that leverage state-based supports and services with a partial cash benefit for individuals with disabilities.
• Develop a regional database on disability and employment that enables predictive modeling related to individuals at risk of developing a disabling health condition.
• Explore new ways to deliver federal disability benefits, such as providing transitional benefits and targeted services for newly-awarded beneficiaries who hold promise for medical improvement.
• Promote better coordination between relevant federal agencies in order to ensure funding streams and programs work together to support individuals with disabilities.

1. Expand Evidence-Based Return to Work Programs:

• Reauthorize SSA’s Work Incentives Planning and Assistance program, which provides benefits counseling to SSDI beneficiaries and supports their efforts to return to work.
• Provide transitional services to individuals who leave the federal disability programs, ensuring they receive a timely handoff to the supportive services that would enable them to transition into the workforce.
• Broaden and publicize tax incentives to hire and retain people with disabilities.
• Direct the Social Security Administration to examine alternative work incentive structures, such as testing the effectiveness of an annual rather than monthly earnings test for individuals with certain types of disabilities.
• Pilot and evaluate additional options for eliminating the “cash cliff” to create better work incentives for SSDI beneficiaries.

1. Explore the Integration of Private Disability Insurance:

• Consider automatic enrollment allowance for private disability insurance, provided employees receive clear and advance notice and a right to opt out.
• Pilot a “front-end” to the SSDI system that leverages private disability insurance and early intervention services as a mandatory step before receiving SSDI.
• Establish a national effort to provide income protection information to workers and employers.

1. Improve the SSDI Determination Process:

• Eliminate the reconsideration stage of determination process in order to save applicants months of time during the determination process; use these resources to better develop cases at initial level.
• Direct SSA to standardize the process and forms related to evidence submission
• Increase administrative law judge (ALJ) hearing notice from 20 to 75 days to provide applicants more time to gather evidence from medical providers in advance of hearings.
• Recommend evidence submission five days prior to hearing to ensure ALJs have sufficient time to review cases.
• Increase the number of SSA’s ALJs in order to reduce the significant backlog of cases.

1. Strengthen SSDI Program Integrity and Solvency:

• Improve the accuracy of work reports by providing more frequent reminders to beneficiaries about their obligation to report earnings as well as the new avenues through which to do so.
• Evaluate the medical-vocational guidelines to ensure that the current factors reflect advances in employment options and medical technologies and treatments.
• Communicate the contingent nature of SSDI benefits and ensure timely Continuing Disability Reviews of current beneficiaries.
• Ensure long-term Social Security program solvency by advocating for congressional action to strengthen fiscal health of both disability and retirement trust funds.

Today’s roundtable discussion, hosted by Disability Rights Maine and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, brought together disability advocates, business organizations, and state leaders. To see a full list of participants, click HERE.

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