Feds To Use Stick And Carrot To Get Disability Claimant Info

The Social Security Administration has issued a final rule that could affect some U.S. disability insurers.

The final rule, “Continuing Disability Review Failure To Cooperate Process,” gives the SSA the authority to suspend Social Security Disability Insurance benefits payments if the beneficiaries fail to comply with requests for what the SSA believes to be necessary information.

The SSA will reinstate benefits once beneficiaries supply the requested information, but, “should you remain noncompliant for a period of 1 year following your suspension, we will then terminate your disability benefits,” the SSA says in a preamble to the regulation, which appears today in the Federal Register.