Library Collections: Document: Full Text

-12- S. Rept. No. 1669, 81st Cong., 2d sess. (1950), p.3.

The conference committee went along with the Senate version of the bill as to disability insurance benefits, and as finally passed by the Congress the bill made no provision for disability, insurance benefits. The legislation did, however, extend the State-Federal public assistance programs to the permanently and totally disabled by providing grants-in-aid to the States for such individuals who are in need, as had been recommended by the minority of the 1948 Advi-sory Council. -13-

-13- Title XIV, Social Security Act., superseded by new title XVI under Public Law 92-603

Some of the salient features of the disability insurance program passed by the House of Representatives as part of H.R. 6000 were -

(1) To be insured, the individual needed 20 quarters of coverage in the 40-quarter period ending with the quarter of disablement and 6 quarters of coverage in the U-quarter period ending with such quarter.

(2) The definition of disability was the same as the present definition for the payment of disability insurance benefits, except that the disability had to be "medically demonstrable" and "permanent," and blindness (defined as it now is for purposes of the disability "freeze") was included within the definition. Benefits were to be paid only after a waiting period of 6 months. In this regard the Committee on Ways and Means made it clear that the 6-month period was not a basis for a presumption of perma-nence or protracted total disability. Where recovery could be expected, according to medical prognosis, within relatively short periods of time after the expiration of the 6-month waiting period, such cases would not be compensable under the definition of disability. The committee felt, that a cautious approach to the payment of benefits was necessary to prevent abuses. -14-

-14- H. Rept. No. 1300, 81st Cong., 1st sess. (1949), pp. 29 and 30.

(3) There was no age limitation such as the former requirement that an individual must be at least age 50 to receive benefits; nor was provision made for the payment of benefits to dependents.

(4) An individual's insured status and benefit amount for purposes of old-age and survivors insurance were preserved (i.e., a disability "freeze" was established) while he was entitled to disability insurance benefits.

(5) Determinations of disability were to be made by the Administrator of the Federal Security Agency (predecessor of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare).

(6) Benefits were to be adjusted in cases where the beneficiary was also receiving a workmen's compensation benefit for the same disability during the same period of time.

(7) Benefits were to be suspended where, among other things, an individual who was still disabled had earnings in excess of a permitted amount or where he failed, without good cause, to accept certain re-habilitation services or to undergo medical examinations.

Social Security Act Amendments of 1952

The 1952 amendments to the Social Security Act provided for a disability "freeze" (not disability insurance benefits) with an effective date of July 1, 1953, but only if the Congress prior to that date affirmatively approved the provision. The Congress did not take any action prior to July 1, 1953. As a result, the disability "freeze" in the 1952 amendments never became operative.

The 1952 amendments had their origin in H.R. 7800, which was reported out by the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives with a provision for a disability "freeze" similar in many respects to the dis-ability "freeze" in present law. The committee included in the bill a provision which authorized the Administrator of the Federal Security Agency to make determinations of disability -- a like provision having appeared in H.R. 6000 as passed by the House of Representatives in 1949. This provision came under heavy attack on the floor of the House of Representatives-15- and was eventually deleted from the bill. As finally passed by the House of Representatives, the bill contained no specific provision as to who would make determinations of disability.

-15- Congressional Record, vol. 98p.5466 et seq. (May 19, 1932).

The Senate Committee on Finance recommended the passage of H.R. 7800 without any provision for a disability "freeze." In taking this action, the com-mittee stated:

In deleting these provisions, your committee did not prejudge the merits of these proposals. There was insufficient time for full hearings which would have been necessary if proper consideration were given to these two provisions and the numerous amendments suggested thereto?

The Senate followed the recommendations of the Committee on Finance. In conference, it was agreed to recommend the inclusion of the disability "freeze" as passed by the House of Representatives with the following two not able changes -- (l) determinations of disability would be made by States through appropriate agencies pursuant to agreements between the States and the .Administrator; and (2) the provision would become operative only if Congress later affirmatively approved it. -17-