Here's hoping.
SSDI benefits of up to $1, 800 a month are based on lifetime earnings and are paid to people who have worked for a set number of years, while SSI (up to $770 a month) is a benefit for low-income people who have largely been out of work. As in Britain, governments undercutting or altering access to benefits leaves those disabled people who rely on them in a profoundly precarious position. Having senior politicians grasp what's at stake and making it a priority is critical. According to Alice Wong, an advocate and a co-partner in #CripTheVote, a non-partisan campaign encouraging the political participation of disabled people, one of the reasons for the recent shift in focus by Democrats is that social media has increased the "visibility of disabled people's perspectives and their direct engagement and critique of candidates. " And, as she also points out, "campaigns are more noticeably hiring disabled people". It's one thing as a presidential hopeful to have great intentions and another entirely to get elected and put them into practice.
Figures published this month confirming that more than 5, 000 disabled and chronically ill people in the UK died before they could be reimbursed for benefits not paid due to government errors, and which left them seriously out of pocket, is just the latest in a long litany of mistreatment. In the US, a plethora of attacks on the social safety net, including reducing access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (known as Snap and formerly, food stamps) has disproportionately affected disabled and chronically ill people. So too do attempts to undermine social security. The latest adverse proposal from the Trump administration would introduce additional assessments of social security benefits applicants in order to qualify. The move constitutes what some disability advocates are calling a " back-door " attack on vital assistance along similar lines to the fit-for-work tests in the UK. Some, including Cokley, are pointing to British cuts and reforms as a cautionary tale. If implemented, the new rule would make it much harder (in an already notoriously tough system) for disabled people to claim two kinds of benefits currently needed by millions, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
Disability advocates welcomed Sanders's plan. "This is an extraordinarily far-reaching plan, made even more so by its willingness to take executive action on longstanding disability rights priorities stalled in Congress, " said Ari Ne'eman, an Obama appointee who advised both the Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren World passes 3 million coronavirus deaths Poll: 56 percent say wealth tax is part of solution to inequality Democratic senators call on Biden to support waiving vaccine patents MORE (D-Mass. ) presidential campaigns on their disability policy proposals. "Disability is playing a big role in the closing message of multiple campaigns - I think that speaks to the growing power of disability issues to reach voters, " he added. Victoria Rodríguez-Roldán, a disability justice advocate who previously raised concerns about mental health care provisions in Sen. Kamala Harris Kamala Harris Biden, Harris commend Mondale in paving the way for female VP Overnight Energy: Treasury creates hub to fight climate change through finance | Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez introduce 'Green New Deal for Public Housing' | Harris: Americans able to 'breathe easier and sleep better' under Biden MORE 's (D-Calif. ) mental health care proposals, told The Hill she was honored to have helped the Sanders campaign.
Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders Overnight Energy: Treasury creates hub to fight climate change through finance | Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez introduce 'Green New Deal for Public Housing' | Don't attack Zoom for its Bernie Sanders federal tax bill Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez introduce 'Green New Deal for Public Housing' MORE 's (I-Vt. ) presidential campaign unveiled a comprehensive plan for disabled Americans Friday morning, pledging to treat disability rights as "civil rights. " Sanders's plan vows to "incorporate disability issues into every other area of public policy, " including the creation of a National Office of Disability Coordination to run policy and to ensure that all public resources are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Vermont senator also promised to use executive action to advance disability rights if elected president. "It's time for us to acknowledge that disability rights are civil rights, and that a society that does not center the voices and needs of people with disabilities has yet to fulfill its most basic obligations, " Sanders said in a statement.