Glossary — Disability

These are the jargon, acronyms, and constructs a non-expert hits in the Disability whitepaper. Use this as a reading companion; the filing remains the source of truth.

• SSI
  Supplemental Security Income — means-tested disability/aged benefit; improper-payment rates are much higher than OASDI.
• SSDI / DI
  Social Security Disability Insurance — earned-benefit disabled-worker program under OASDI.
• Improper payment vs fraud
  Stewardship over/underpayments (often reporting/complexity) are not an intentional-fraud series — the filing's first kill condition.
• OASDI
  Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance — the combined Social Security trust-fund programs.
• ALJ / hearing backlog
  Administrative Law Judge stage of disability adjudication — timing and allowance rates are load-bearing.
• SGA
  Substantial Gainful Activity — earnings threshold that can end or bar benefits; core of the 'work cliff' story.
• Work cliff / MBI
  Benefit loss at work; Medicaid Buy-In and related bridges try to soften it.
• BOND
  Benefit Offset National Demonstration — evidence on offset designs vs abrupt cutoff.
• CDR / CDI
  Continuing Disability Review / Cooperative Disability Investigations — integrity tools distinct from improper-payment totals.
• Citogenesis (~$72B fraud)
  High-circulation Social Security 'fraud' figure root-traced to a cumulative OIG improper-payment total later relabeled.
• Awards vs stock (mental disorders)
  12.7% of 2023 disabled-worker awards vs ≈28.6% of worker stock — three constructs, not one scandal.
• QC / APT / AFR
  Quality-control and allowance/accuracy metrics SSA publishes — read the definition before the headline.

Scope note: docs/glossary-scope.md. Challenge a definition: [email protected].