Jack Smalligan

Senior Policy Fellow at the Urban Institute. Analyze disability, retirement and paid leave policy. Served 27 years in the Office of Management and Budget.

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

This paper provides more context 2/2: https://t.co/7ojRVYMfiv

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

The Wa Post has issued an important story on an upcoming major SSA disability regulation that would especially affect older disabled workers 1/2: https://t.co/oJiIy1V5ea

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

9/ Policymakers, advocates, and researchers should pay close attention. The rule is likely to have profound policy and human consequences and could reshape disability policy for years to come.

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

🧵 Big changes may be coming to disability benefits. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is preparing a rule that could reshape how eligibility is determined for SSDI and SSI. Here’s what you need to know—and why it matters. https://t.co/7ojRVYLHsX

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

8/ Many denied older workers may turn to early retirement benefits—cutting lifetime retirement income by up to 30%.

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

SSA needs to study these developments and analyze claim decisions. The changes may well be explainable but SSA has yet to acknowledge the issue. And SSA is operating with far fewer staff who have responsibility to analyze and improve the programs.

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

The Administration has taken credit for a substantial drop in the Social Security disability claims backlog. In this piece I explore the concerning factors behind this drop, including fewer new applications and more denials. https://t.co/rCkB0A1L8W

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

3rd, Disability adjudicators are more productive, as expected. SSA experienced very high turnover among adjudicators after the pandemic. SSA estimated a temporary 20% drop in productivity as new staff are trained. This underscores the importance of retaining government staff.

[Arnold Ventures @Arnold_Ventures]

As Congress looks to address waste, fraud, and abuse, @MarkMiller_DC offers opportunities to make targeted reforms to lower #Medicare spending and rein in abusive practices of special interests.

More: https://t.co/ubMuNrzkNW

[Brendan Duke @Brendan_Duke]

This idea has emerged among senior GOP policymakers that CBO's decisions always favor progressive policies. Let me run through a list of things CBO has done to annoy progressives--not to criticize CBO but that it hardly has it in the bag for progressives. 🧵

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

Janet was at Treasury and I was at OMB when the Bush Administration tested this policy. The evaluation of the test showed high proportions of eligibles were deterred from applying and high administrative costs for IRS. Including this policy in reconciliation is a travesty.

[Jack Smalligan @JSmalligan]

The House reconciliation bill includes a provision that could keep many thousands of individuals from receiving EITC. This little noticed provision requires IRS to precertify millions of individuals for the EITC. See this piece from Janet Holtzblatt. https://t.co/CP8UAHRMxq