Subject: RE: SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE BLIND
Sam,
Actually, NFB went to Congressman Lewis from Georgia and had him introduce a bill BLIND PERSONS EARNINGS FAIRNESS Act of 2007 introduced on Oct 15, 2007.
It would raise the earnings from $1,800 to $2,200 in 2010, to $2,500 in 2011, up to $2,850 per month in 2012 and allow the blind person to keep there SSDI and benefits.
Well, the congressman was attacked by every other disability organization in America, and asked why not do this for all disabled people on SSI or SSDI.
The tax costs for this would be huge if it was opened up to millions of people with any disability, making it impossible to pass this bill.
NFB is still trying, but this thing is stuck in Ways and Means Committee, under Congressman Charlie Rangel from New York who while sympathetic to the issue, would have to find huge cost offsets to cover the costs of waving this.
H R 3834 is the legislation, I did not mention it in the board meeting because of the time involved, but ACB, AFB, NIB, and other blind groups were upset about the political games because NFB never told anyone this was coming down and of course excluded the other disability groups who vowed to prevent it.
Tom Zampieri
From: Sam
[mailto:sampa1@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:23 AM
To: Tom Zampieri
Subject: SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE BLIND
GOOD MORNING TOM,
A BLIND VET WAS HIRED BY THE VA IN PHILLY FOR A PART TIME JOB WITHOUT BENEFITS. FIVE DAYS A WEEK FOR 20 HOURS. HE IS NON SERVICE CONNECTED AND ON SSDI. HE USED HIS NINE MONTHS TRIAL PERIOD FOR ANOTHER JOB. HE DECIDED NOT TO TAKE THE JOB AT THE VA BECAUSE HE WOULD HAVE TO GIVE UP SSDI WITH HIS MEDICARE.
NOW, THIS SEEMS TO BE ONE OF THE IMPEDIMENTS TO GETTING BLIND PEOPLE TO WORK. THE LIMIT TO WHAT THEY CAN EARN IS TOO LOW BEFORE GIVING IT BACK DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR.
I HEARD THERE WAS A REP WHO INTRODUCED A BILL IN CONGRESS TO EITHER RAISE THE CEILING OR TO PUT THE UNDER 65 IN THE SAME CATEGORY AS THE OVER SIXTY FIVE ALLOWING THEM TO MAKE ALL THEY WANT. I AM NOT SURE WHAT THE BILL IS. DO YOU KNOW OR CAN FIND OUT FOR ME?
I KNOW IT IS A LONG SHOT TO GET IT THROUGH THIS YEAR BUT IT MAY BE WORTH WILE TO KEEP IT ON THE AGENDA.
LET ME KNOW,
THANKS,
SAM
End of Document