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A new report suggests that the Trump White House is planning on drastically changing how the Social Security Administration (SSA) calculates whether a person is eligible for disability payments, by eliminating or altering age as a consideration.
A number of factors are taken into account when it comes to disability claims, including a person’s work experience, their educational background, and their age, to determine whether or not an individual is capable of shifting to other work. But according to sources speaking with The Washington Post, age may soon be considered less or not at all.
According to three people familiar with the administration’s plan, the White House may alter the age threshold to qualify for disability, shifting the current standard of age 50 to age 60. The administration is also contemplating wiping out the age consideration altogether.
It’s unclear how many people would be affected by the proposals. A recent analysis considering a 10 percent drop in people who are eligible to receive disability-based disbursements suggested that 750,000 fewer people would receive benefits from the program over the next 10 years, with another 80,000 widows and children who benefit from the program also being detrimentally affected.
Those sources also said that the new framework was a “priority of Russel Vought,” the current director of the Office of Management and Budget and a co-author of Project 2025, a manifesto of right-wing policy goals that was published during the 2024 presidential race. President Donald Trump sought to distance himself from that document on the campaign trail, but since taking office in January, has reportedly enacted nearly half of its objectives. In recent weeks, he has more openly embraced Project 2025 in public comments.
In response to the report from the Post, a spokesperson for the White House maintained, as Trump himself did during his campaign, that the president “will always protect and defend Social Security.”
Lawmakers and advocates condemned the administration’s plan, warning that it would have negative consequences for beneficiaries.
“This is Phase One of the Republican campaign to force Americans to work into old age to access their earned Social Security benefits, and represents the largest cut to disability insurance in American history,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said. “Americans with disabilities have worked and paid into Social Security just like everybody else, and they do not deserve the indignity of more bureaucratic water torture to get what they paid for.”
“Americans EARN Social Security disability benefits” by paying into the program “with every paycheck, along with retirement and survivor benefits,” read a Facebook post from Social Security Works, an organization that aims to defend and expand Social Security benefits. “But now, the Trump administration is trying to cut those benefits. They’ll do anything to protect billionaires from paying their fair share.”
“This is a cut to the benefits millions of Americans have earned. And we’re not going to stand for it — we’re going to fight,” the Alliance for Retired Americans wrote on X.
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