AUGUSTA, ME – The Social Security Administration (SSA) today released a final rule that incorporates several proposals from U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) that will better support people in Maine living with disabilities.

In Maine today, an applicant for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits has to wait 13 months on average from the time they request an appeals hearing at the Portland SSA hearing office to the date that it takes place. The proposals from Senator King incorporated into today’s final rule will help reduce the considerable wait times that people with disabilities experience when applying for programs that can help them support themselves if they are unable to perform substantial work. The changes to the rule are in line with those suggested by Senator King in a letter he wrote to the SSA last month.

            “I am encouraged the Social Security Administration has incorporated many of my suggestions into this final rule. It’s simply unfair and wrong to force people living with work-limiting disabilities to wait so long to figure out what benefits they are eligible for – and what’s worse, to essentially not allow them to make any money while they wait,” Senator King said. “With the inclusion of these suggestions, I am hopeful that the disability appeals backlog will be reduced significantly and the program will become a more efficient and effective tool to support people with disabilities across Maine.”

Today’s final rule is the culmination of a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that the SSA had been working on to improve the procedures used to review applicants for the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. SSDI and SSI provide critical support for people with disabilities in Maine and around the country, but unfortunately, applicants often face substantial wait times that cause hardship and uncertainty. For example, the average wait time for applicants in Maine is 13 months from the time they request an appeals hearing at the Portland SSA hearing office to the date that it takes place.

Several of the proposals included in the draft NPRM were similar to suggestions made by Senator King in a 2015 disability whitepaper. However, Senator King believed that there were ways to improve on the draft version of SAA’s proposal, and in November, he wrote a letter urging SSA to adjust some of those proposals to promote a faster appeals process that increases efficiency while maintaining fairness for applicants.

In his November letter, Senator King suggested a 75-day advance hearing notice for SSDI and SSI applicants along with a requirement that applicants submit evidence of their disability at least five days before their hearing – instead of the 60-day notice originally proposed by SSA. Senator King’s letter also called for a good-cause exemption to the 5-day pre-hearing evidence submission requirement for applicants that is consistently enforced and applied to the full range of submissions. Both of those suggestions were included in the final rule announced by SSA today.

Senator King held a disability roundtable last fall where he heard directly from Mainers, after which he has worked with SSA to improve the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. He published a whitepaper last November with his proposals to help Mainers with disabilities enter the workforce.

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