A 40-year-old policy that made inability to communicate in English a partial factor in awarding disability benefits. That is changing in April.
Social Security says they are “required to consider your education to determine if your medical condition prevents work. Research now shows the inability to communicate in English is no longer a good measure of a person’s education level or the ability to engage in work.”
For the past four decades, English-language competence could be considered as one factor in a disability claim. Disability would certainly never be based entirely on that, but it could be an element in a claim. An injured laborer, fr example, who has the additional impediment of not speaking English, was considered more likely to be found disabled under those rules That’s all gone as of April 27.