Last updated: 10/12/2018
Peter W. Martin
Cornell Law School

Background Material on Social Security Law

A Social Security Law Guide

1. General References

·         Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 401 - 434)

·         Social Security Regulations, Subpart D (20 C.F.R. §§ 404.301 - 404.392) (the catalog of benefits)

·         SSA, Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security

·         D. Nuschler, Social Security Primer (2016)

2. Who receives benefits and under what circumstances. Relationship between payments in and benefits received. Key terminology and legal issues.

·         Social Security Law Guide: Relationship of Past Earnings to Benefits Received

·         Key:

o   SSA, Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security

o   SSA, Program Description and Legislative History, Annual Statistical Supplement, 2017

o   P. Martin, Social Security Overview: Key Terms and Abbreviations (14 minute video 2012)

o   P. Martin, Social Security Overview: Benefit Categories (3.5 minute video 2012)

o   P. Martin, Social Security Overview: Program Reach and Impact (11.5 minute video 2012)

o   P. Martin, Social Security: The Problem of Terminology (2000)

o   Collier v. Barnhart, 473 F.3d 444 (2d Cir. 2007)

·         For Additional Background:

o   SSA, Adjustment of Social Security Parameters for 2018, 82 Fed. Reg. 59937 (Dec. 15, 2017)

o   SSA, Press Summary of 2018 Changes (Oct. 2017)

o   SSA, Program Statistics, Annual Statistical Supplement, 2017

3. Program History – Important stages in the program's evolution and the politics that shaped them.

·         Key:

o   Social Security Act of 1935

§  Text of Act

§  President Roosevelt: Statement to Congress (Jan. 1935)

§  Contemporary Commentary (Nation magazine)

o   Helvering v. Davis, 301 U.S. 619 (1937) and background

o   P. Martin, Social Security History: The Foundation Years (14 minute video)

o   Patricia Martin & David Weaver, Social Security: A Program and Policy History (2005)

o   Social Security Bulletin: Annual Statistical Supplement, 2017, Tables 2.A20 - 2.A22

·         For Additional Background:

o   P. Martin, Public Assurance of an Adequate Minimum Income in Old Age: The Erratic Partnership Between Social Insurance and Public Assistance

o   P. Martin, The Art of Decoupling: Keeping Social Security's Promise Up-to-Date

o   P. Martin, Social Security Benefits for Spouses

o   L. DeWitt, The Development of Social Security in America (2010)

o   L. DeWitt, The Decision to Exclude Agricultural and Domestic Workers from the 1935 Social Security Act (2010)

o   C. Puckett, The Story of the Social Security Number (2009)

o   SSA's legislative history archive

o   SSA's additional historical materials

4. Retirement Benefits

·         Key:

o   Act: 42 U.S.C. §§ 402(a), 409, 410, 411, 405(c)

o   Regulations:

§  Subpart C- Computing Primary Insurance Amounts

·         20 C.F.R. §§ 404.210 - 404.213

·         20 C.F.R. §§ 404.270 - 404.278

§  Subpart I- Records of Earnings

·         20 C.F.R. §§ 404.801 - 404.831

§  Subpart K- Employment, Wages, Self-Employment, and Self-Employment Income

·         20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1001-404.1096

o   SSA, Adjustment of Social Security Parameters for 2018, 82 Fed. Reg. 59937 (Dec. 15, 2017)

·         A Few Illustrative Cases:

o   Bethel Baptist Church v. U.S., 629 F. Supp. 1073 (M.D. Pa. 1986)

o   Minnesota v. Apfel, 151 F.3d 742 (8th Cir. 1998)

o   Highfill v. Bowen, 832 F.2d 112 (8th Cir. 1987)

o   Acierno v. Barnhart, 475 F.3d 77 (2d Cir. 2007)

o   Biddulph v. Callahan, 1 F. Supp. 2d 12 (D.D.C. 1998)

o   Butts v. Secretary, 706 F.2d 107 (2d Cir. 1983)

o   Hermes v. Secretary, 926 F.2d 789 (9th Cir. 1991)

·         For Additional Background:

o   SSA, Online Calculators for Estimating Benefits

o   P. Martin, The Art of Decoupling: Keeping Social Security's Promise Up-to-Date

o   V. Reno & J. Lavery, Social Security and Retirement Income Adequacy (2007)

o   K. Whitman, G. Reznik & D. Shoffner, Who Never Receives Social Security Benefits? (2011)

o   B. Bridges & S. Choudhury, Examining Social Security Benefits as a Retirement Resource for Near-Retirees, by Race and Ethnicity,
Nativity, and Disability Status (2009)

5. Derivative Benefits for Spouses

·         Social Security Law Guide: Benefits Payable to an Insured Worker’s Spouse

·         Key:

o   Act: 42 U.S.C. §§ 402(b), 402(c), 402(e), 402(f), 402(g), 402(h), 416(b), 416(c), 416(h)(1)

o   Regulations:

§  Subpart D - Old-Age, Disability, Dependents' and Survivors' Insurance Benefits; Period of Disability

·         20 C.F.R. §§ 404.330-404.349

·         20 C.F.R. §§ 404.723-404.728

o   Retirement Security Project, Retirement Security for Women (2008)
(for updated numbers see SSA,  Social Security Is Important to Women)

o   SSA, Same Sex Couples

·         A Few Illustrative Cases:

o   Everetts v. Apfel, 214 F.3d 990 (8th Cir. 2000)

o   Burks v. Apfel, 233 F.3d 1220 (10th Cir. 2000)

o   Barron v. Apfel, 209 F.3d 984 (7th Cir. 2000)

o   Green v. Shalala, 51 F.3d 96 (7th Cir. 1995)

·         For Additional Background:

o   P. Martin, Social Security Benefits for Spouses

o   B. Butrica & K. Smith, The Impact of Changes in Couples' Earnings on Married Women's Social Security Benefits (2012)

o   B. Butrica & K. Smith, The Retirement Prospects of Divorced Women (2012)

o   M. Meyer, D. Wolf, & C. Himes, Linking Benefits to Marital Status: Race and Social Security in the US (2005)

o   B. Butrica & K. Smith, Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Retirement Prospects of Divorced Women in the Baby Boom and Generation X Cohorts (2012)

o   D. Weaver, Widows and Social Security (2010)

o   P. Levine, O. Mitchell, & J. Phillips, A Benefit of One's Own: Older Women's Entitlement to Social Security Retirement (2000)

6. Derivative Benefits for Children

·         Social Security Law Guide: Benefits Payable to an Insured Worker’s Children

·         Key:

o    Act: 42 U.S.C. §§ 402(d); 416(e); 416(h)(2)

o    Regulations:

§  Subpart D - Old-Age, Disability, Dependents' and Survivors' Insurance Benefits; Period of Disability

§  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.350-404.368

§  Subpart H - Evidence

·  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.730-404.736

§  Subpart E - Deductions; Reductions; and Nonpayments of Benefits

·  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.402-404.404

·  20 C.F.R. § 404.415

o    NCCP, Whose Security? - What Social Security Means to Children and Families (2005)

·         A Few Illustrative Cases:

o    Vernoff v. Astrue, 568 F. 3d 1102 (9th Cir. 2009)

o    Casserino v. Sullivan, 921 F.2d 862 (9th Cir. 1990)

o    Jones v. Chater, 101 F.3d 509 (7th Cir. 1996)

o    Mack v. Sullivan, 813 F. Supp. 760 (D. Kan. 1993)

o    Allen v. Callahan, 120 F.3d 86 (7th Cir. 1997)

o    Hutcheson v. Califano, 638 F.2d 96 (9th Cir. 1981)

o    Reutter v. Barnhart, 372 F.3d 946 (8th Cir. 2004)

·         For Additional Background:

o    SSA, Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security

o    SSA, Benefits for Children

o    C. Tamborini, E. Cupito & D. Shoffner, A Profile of Social Security Child Beneficiaries and their Families:
Sociodemographic and Economic Characteristics (2011)

o    C. Newcomb, Demographic and Economic Characteristics of Children in Families Receiving Social Security (2004)

o    SSA, Formula for Family Maximum

o    Washington State Dep't of Soc. & Health Servs. v. Estate of Keffeler, 537 U.S. 371 (2003)

7. Effect of Age and Continuing Earnings on Benefits

·         Social Security Law Guide: The Effect of Age, Continuing Earnings, and Other Factors on Benefit Amount

·         Key:

o    Act: 42 U.S.C. §§ 402(q); 403(b); 403(f); 416(l)

o    Regulations:

§  Subpart E - Deductions; Reductions; and Nonpayments of Benefits

·  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.410-404.420

·  20 C.F.R. § 404.429

·  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.402-404.404

o    J. Song, Evaluating the Initial Impact of Eliminating the Retirement Earnings Test (2004)

o    M. Anzick & D. Weaver, The Impact of Repealing the Retirement Earnings Test on Rates of Poverty (2000)

o    D. Nuschler & R. Shelton, Social Security Retirement Earnings Test: How Earnings Affect Benefits (2012)

·         A Few Illustrative Cases:

o    Rand v. Sullivan, 924 F.2d 159 (9th Cir. 1990) (but see 76 Fed. Reg. 68243 (Nov. 3, 2011))

o    Adams v. Sullivan, 928 F.2d 725 (6th Cir. 1991)

o    Das v. Department of Health & Human Services, 17 F.3d 1250 (9th Cir. 1994)

·         For Additional Background:

o    M. Leonesio, B. Bridges, R. Gesumaria & L. Del Bene, The Increasing Labor Force Participation of Older Workers and its Effect on the Income of the Aged (2012)

o    J. Manchester & J. Song, What Can We Learn from Analyzing Historical Data on Social Security Entitlements (2011)

o    L. Friedberg, Testimony Before the House Ways and Means Comm. (2000)

o    F. Greenstein, Testimony Before the House Ways and Means Comm. (2000)

o    K. Apfel, Testimony Before the House Ways and Means Comm. (2000)

o    Wayne Liou, The Social Security Retirement Age (2016)

8. Disability Benefits – The Standard

·         Social Security Law Guide: Benefits Based on Disability

·         Key:

o    Act: 42 U.S.C. § 423

o    Regulations:

§  Subpart P - Determining Disability and Blindness

·  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1501-404.1599

·         A Few Illustrative Cases and Rulings:

o    Duration

§  Barnhart v. Walton, 535 U.S. 212 (2002)

o    Substantial gainful activity

§  Thompson v. Sullivan, 878 F.2d 1108 (8th Cir. 1989)

§  Jones v. Shalala, 21 F.3d 191 (7th Cir. 1994)

o    Severity (See Bowen v. Yuckert, below, for background)

§  Webb v. Barnhart, 433 F.3d 683 (9th Cir. 2005)

o    Listed impairment or equivalent

§  Winans v. Bowen, 853 F.2d 643 (9th Cir. 1987)

o    Ability to perform past relevant work

§  Barnhart v. Thomas, 540 U.S. 20 (2003)

§  Social Security Ruling SSR No. 82-62

§  Manso-Pizarro v. Secretary, 76 F.3d 15 (1st Cir. 1996)

§  Rater v. Chater, 73 F.3d 796 (8th Cir. 1996)

§  Moad v. Massanari, 260 F.3d 887 (8th Cir. 2001)

§  Vertigan v. Halter, 260 F.3d 1044 (9th Cir. 2001)

o    Medical-Vocational Guidelines (See Heckler v. Campbell, below, for background)

§  Beckley v. Apfel, 152 F.3d 1056 (8th Cir. 1998)

o    Failure to treat and other medical issues

§  Lovelace v. Bower, 813 F.2d 55 (5th Cir. 1987)

o    Vocational component

§  Duran v. Astrue, 654 F. Supp. 2d 1298 (D. Colo. 2009)

§  Hayes v. Chater, 73 F.3d 769 (8th Cir. 1996)

·         For Additional Background:

o    SSA, Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program

o    SSA, SSI Annual Statistical Report

o    W. Morton, Primer on Disability Benefits: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) (2016)

o    P. O'Leary, G. Livermore & D. Stapleton, Employment of Individuals in the Social Security Disability Programs (2011) (and other articles
in vol. 71, No. 3 of the Social Security Bulletin)

o    Jon C. Dubin, The Labor Market Side of Disability Benefits Policy and Law, 20 S. Cal. Rev. of L. & Soc. Just. 1 (2011) (SSRN)

o    Social Security Advisory Board, Charting the Future of Social Security's Disability Programs (2001)

o    Income of Disabled-Worker Beneficiaries (SSA Jan. 2001)

o    A. Mamun, P. O'Leary, D. Wittenburg, & J. Gregory, Employment Among Social Security Disability Program Beneficiaries, 1996-2007 (2011)

o    2000 Testimony Before the House Ways and Means Committee

§  Edward D. Berkowitz (Historic background)

o    Key Supreme Court decisions:

§  Bowen v. Yuckert, 482 U.S. 137 (1987) ("severity")

§  Heckler v. Campbell, 461 U.S. 458 (1983) (the "grid")

9. Disability Benefits – The Administrative Process

·         Social Security Law Guide: Administrative Claims Adjudication Process

·         Key:

o    Act: 42 U.S.C. § 405

o    Regulations:

§  Subpart J - Determinations, Administrative Review Process, and Reopening of Determinations and Decisions

·  20 C.F.R. §§ 404.900-404.999d

o    Excerpts from Nov. 2003 GAO Report on SSA Disability Decision Making, GAO 04-14 - 12 page excerpt

o    Flowchart of disability determinations FY 2016

o    Budgetary limits on administrative expenditure and delays in the process: Nancy G. Shor 2010 testimony; K. Romig, More Cuts to Social Security Administration Funding Would Further Degrade Service (2017)

·         A Few Illustrative Cases and Rulings:

o    Need to exhaust administrative remedies

§  Harper v. Bowen, 813 F.2d 737 (5th Cir. 1987)

o    Missing deadlines for "good cause"

§  SSR No. 91-5

o    Reapplying and administrative res judicata

§  Chavez v. Bowen, 844 F.2d 691 (9th Cir. 1988)

§  King v. Chater, 90 F.3d 323 (8th Cir. 1996)

o    ALJ Hearing

§  Brown v. Shalala, 44 F.3d 931 (11th Cir. 1995)

§  Poulin v. Bowen, 817 F.2d 865 (D.C. Cir. 1987)

§  Burnett v. Bowen, 830 F.2d 731 (7th Cir. 1987)

§  Yancey v. Apfel, 145 F.3d 106 (2d Cir. 1998)

§  Fargnoli v. Massanari, 247 F.3d 34 (3d Cir. 2001)

§  Blea v. Barnhart, 466 F.3d 903 (10th Cir. 2006)

o    Appeals Council Review

§  Culbertson v. Shalala, 30 F.3d 934 (8th Cir. 1994)

§  Lovejoy v. Heckler, 790 F.2d 1114 (4th Cir. 1986)

·         For Additional Background:

o    Richardson v. Perales, 402 U.S. 389 (1971)

o    Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976)

o    Nash v. Bowen, 869 F.2d 675 (2d Cir. 1989)

o    SSA, OIG, The Social Security Administration's Response to State Furloughs Impacting Its Disability Programs (2011)

o    SSA, Data on Social Security's Hearings and Appeals Process, including ALJ disposition data

o    SSA, OIG, Use of Video Hearings to Reduce the Hearing Case Backlog (2011)

o    GAO, Office of Personnel Management Should Review Administrative Law Judge Program ..., GAO-10-14 (2010)

o    The ALJ hiring process

o    Administrative Conference of the U.S., Improving Consistency in Social Security Disability Adjudications (2013)

o    Statement of Commissioner Michael Astrue before House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Social Security; Data on Allowance Rate Extremes (July 2011)

10. Judicial Review

·         Social Security Law Guide: Judicial Review of Agency Decisions

·         Key:

o   Act: 42 U.S.C. § 405(g)

·         A Few Illustrative Cases:

o   Sims v. Apfel, 530 U.S. 103 (2000)

o   O'Dell v. Shalala, 44 F.3d 855 (10th Cir. 1994)

o   Randall v. Sullivan, 956 F.2d 105 (5th Cir. 1992)

o   Ripley v. Chater, 67 F.3d 552 (5th Cir. 1995)

o   Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U.S. 89 (1991)

o   Forney v. Apfel, 524 U.S. 266 (1998)

o   Grant v. Shalala, 989 F.2d 1332 (3d Cir. 1993)

o   Heckler v. Day, 467 U.S. 104 (1984)

o   Schweiker v. Chilicky, 487 U.S. 412 (1988)

·         For Additional Background:

o   J. Gelbach & D. Marcus, A Study of Social Security Litigation in the Federal Courts (2016)

o   J. Krent & S. Morris, Inconsistency and Angst in District Courts Resolution of Social Security Disability Appeals (2016)

o   Topic 8 cases -- especially:

§  Harper v. Bower, 813 F.2d 737 (5th Cir. 1987)

§  Burnett v. Bowen, 830 F.2d 731 (7th Cir. 1987)

11. Representation by Attorneys and Others

·         Social Security Law Guide: Representation by Attorneys and Others

12. Relationship between Social Security and Other Earnings Replacement Programs

·         Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

o   Key:

§  SSA, Program Description and Legislative History, Annual Statistical Supplement, 2017

§  SSA, SSI Annual Statistical Report, 2016

o   For Additional Background:

§  Act: 42 U.S.C. §§ 1381-1383f (Title XVI of the Social Security Act, §§ 1601-1637)

§  Regulations:

·  Part 416 - Supplemental Security Income for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled

o   20 CFR §§ 416.101- 416.2227

§  P. Martin, Public Assurance of an Adequate Minimum Income in Old Age: The Erratic Partnership Between Social Insurance and Public Assistance

§  SSA, Fast Facts & Figures About Social Security: SSI Recipients by Age

§  GAO, Supplemental Security Income - Preliminary Observations on Children with Mental Impairments (2011)

·         Workers Compensation and Disability Insurance

o   Key:

§  Act: 42 U.S.C. § 424a

§  Regulations:

·  Subpart E- Deductions; Reductions; and Nonpayments of Benefits

o   20 CFR § 404.408

o   Background:

§  SSA, Characteristics of Disabled-Worker Beneficiaries Receiving Workers' Compensation or Public Disability Benefits ... (2008)

·         Private pension integration

o   Background:

§  Karen Burke & Grayson McCouch, Social Security Reform: Lessons From Private Pensions, 92 Cornell L. Rev. 297 (2007)

§  C. Slusher, Pension Integration and Social Security Reform

§  K. Bender, Characteristics of Individuals with Integrated Pensions

·         Medicare and Medicaid

o   Background:

§  Medicare Program - General Information

§  Medicaid.gov

About this Guide:

How to work with the linked source materials

All publications of the Social Security Administration are linked directly to the Agency’s site.

Links of citations to provisions of the U.S. Code and regulations codified in C.F.R., together with those to Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions, employ the Read It Online or RIO service of the Cornell Legal Information Institute. By means of that service they present users with a choice among legal information providers. Choices include the comprehensive fee-based services, Westlaw and Lexis, and a number of free options. To see how this works follow one or more of the following linked references:

·         42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1)(B)

·         20 C.F.R. § 404.1720

·         Clark v. Astrue, 529 F.3d 1211 (9th Cir. 2008)

In varying ways and to varying degrees the services to which the links provide access include tools for checking on the currency of the cited section or case. (Has the cited section been amended or the cited decision overruled or questioned since this guide was written?) They also provide the best means for retrieving directly relevant decisions of the U.S. District Courts. The “precedential” decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals represent only a slim portion of Social Security case law. Following key regulations or appellate decisions into and through Lexis and Westlaw, on the one hand, or Google Scholar, on the other, can lead you to U.S. District Court decisions that have interpreted them.

History

This is the fifth electronic format in which the materials integrated here have appeared. The work was first launched in 1991 on LEXIS where it lived awkwardly and for only a short time. (At that point LEXIS lacked hypertext capability and delivered all content through small screenfuls of character-based monochrome display.) That company's decision not to proceed with its original plan of placing the treatise and its accompanying library of primary law materials on CD-ROM, prompted their migration to the Thomson Corporation's Clark Boardman Callaghan division, which released "Social Security Plus" in 1994. Thomson's acquisition of the West Publishing Company in 1997 brought "Social Security Plus" and a competing West CD-ROM into uncomfortable proximity. Rather than allow their merger, the author brought the compilation to the open Web, as part of the Legal Information Institute's online collection. It lived there for a decade, evolving as the legal resources on the open Web expanded. In 2012, it morphed into a wiki format. The closure of the wikispaces.com site in 2018 prompted the latest conversion.

This segmented form (a series of topical guides) is offered in hopes that some or all of the guides will provide a useful base on which others can build, update, and improve. Please note the licensing terms below.

Copyright and license, plus an affirmative invitation

© Peter W. Martin, 2018. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. As noted above the author not only authorizes redistribution, reuse, revision, and adaptation of this material (with attribution, please) but encourages it.