Plans canceled to curtail disability benefits appeals

WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration said Wednesday it has obtained the money needed to permit a full schedule of hearings on disability benefit appeals this fall and has canceled plans to curtail some of them.

The agency said the Office of Management and Budget has agreed to release about $5 million from a contingency fund to pay for all of the approximately 20,000 appeals hearings conducted each month.

The hearings are held for people appealing decisions to deny or reduce Social Security disability benefits.

The Social Security Administration had said Tuesday it would schedule no new hearings involving expenses for travel or for medical or occupational experts for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Gwendolyn S. King, the commissioner of Social Security, said no hearings would have been canceled.

But she said she was “disturbed at the unnecessary alarm that has been generated among some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens” because of incorrect reports that all appeals hearings had been suspended.

“Today’s action should serve to once again assure the nearly 40 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits that this agency … will continue to serve the public with great measures of both responsibility and compassion,” she said.