Nonpayment of benefits when the Social Security Administration receives notice that an insured person is departed or removed from the United States. Final rule.
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To implement part of the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (SSPA), we are revising our regulations that prohibit payment of monthly benefits and the lump sum death payment under title II of the Social Security Act (the Act) when SSA receives notice that an insured person is deported or removed from the United States under certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). (+info)
Ill-health retirement: national rates and updated guidance for occupational physicians.
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BACKGROUND: Advising on ill-health retirement is an important role of most practising occupational physicians. In recent years, the eligibility criteria and process for gaining early retirement benefits have changed in many pension schemes in the UK. AIM: To investigate the variation in rates of retirement due to ill-health in National Health Service (NHS) Trusts and Local Authorities and to update previously published guidance on ill-health retirement with specific reference to pension schemes with eligibility criteria that include permanence of incapacity due to ill-health. METHODS: Rates of retirement were calculated for 222 NHS Trusts and 132 Local Authorities with more than 1500 employees. Literature searches and consensus statements by the authors. RESULTS: Rates of retirement were widely distributed in the NHS Trusts and Local Authorities. The median rates of retirement were 2.11 (IQR 1.37-2.91)/1000 active members and 4.10 (IQR 3.01-6.10)/1000 employees, respectively (P<0.001). Difficulties in the doctor-patient relationship and in ascertaining the true functional ability of some patients were identified. CONCLUSION: There continues to be marked variation in rates of early retirement due to ill-health within and between organizations that warrants further investigation. The general and specific guidance that appears as an appendix in Supplementary data to this paper should help occupational physicians to make equitable recommendations when assessing applications for early retirement benefits and fitness to work. (+info)
Work, retirement and physical activity: cross-sectional analyses from the Whitehall II study.
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BACKGROUND: To explore the relationship between work, retirement and physical activity. METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses of data from self-completed questionnaires by 6224 civil servants aged 45-69 years participating in phase 5 of the Whitehall II longitudinal study. RESULTS: There appeared to be a dose-response relationship between hours worked and the prevalence of physical activity, with a lower prevalence of recommended physical activity amongst participants working full time (> or =30 h/week), higher prevalence rates amongst those working part time (<30 h/week), and the highest rates amongst participants who were not working at all. Physical activity rates did not increase greatly amongst study participants who had retired from the Civil Service but had gone on to do further full-time work, however, the higher physical activity rates of participants working part time, or not at all, were further enhanced amongst those who had also retired. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that full-time work is associated with lower rates of recommended physical activity levels in this cohort of middle-aged white-collar office workers. Lower grade occupations are also less likely to meet the recommended physical activity levels. While retirement is associated with higher rates of recommended physical activity levels, this benefit is evident amongst those who work part time, or not at all, during their retirement, for whom the benefits of retirement and lower working hours on rates of physical activity appear additive. The frequency of different types of physical activity is associated with different occupational grades, with more sport and gardening being done by the higher occupational grades. (+info)
Lung function in retired coke oven plant workers.
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Lung function was studied in 354 coke oven plant workers in the Lorraine collieries (Houilleres du Bassin de Lorraine, France) who retired between 1963 and 1982 and were still alive on 1 January 1988. A spirometric examination was performed on 68.4% of them in the occupational health service. Occupational exposure to respiratory hazards throughout their career was retraced for each subject. No adverse effect of occupational exposure on ventilatory function was found. Ventilatory function was, however negatively linked with smoking and with the presence of a respiratory symptom or discrete abnormalities visible on pulmonary x ray films. The functional values were mostly slightly lower than predicted values and the most reduced index was the mean expiratory flow, FEF25-75%. The decrease in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was often parallel to that in forced vital capacity (FVC), but it was more pronounced for subjects who had worked underground, for smokers of more than 30 pack-years, and for subjects having a respiratory symptom. Pulmonary function indices were probably overestimated because of the exclusion of deceased subjects and the bias of the participants. (+info)
The involvement of occupational health services prior to ill-health retirement in NHS staff in Scotland and predictors of re-employment.
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OBJECTIVE: To assess the process, causes and outcomes of retirement because of ill-health in NHS staff in Scotland. Particular areas to be investigated include the involvement of occupational health services, access to rehabilitation and redeployment, current health, whether working again and to identify predictors of re-employment. METHOD: An ill-health retirement (IHR) questionnaire was mailed to 863 NHS staff awarded IHR benefits by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency between April 1998 and March 2000. RESULTS: In all, 49% of the 863 postal questionnaires were returned. The most common reasons for retiring were diseases of the musculoskeletal system (38%) and mental disorders (21%). Seventy-one percent of the participants reported their ill-health was partly or completely work related and 29% not work related. Ninety-two percent of NHS staff had attended an occupational health department prior to IHR. Twenty-three percent of participants had no contact with their line manager during their illness prior to retiral. Eighteen percent of individuals were offered the opportunity of working part-time and 15% offered alternative work. Seventeen percent of participants have obtained other work. Predictors of re-employment after IHR were: medical condition, managerial responsibility, improvement of health, wanting to work again, occupation and age at retirement. CONCLUSION: This is the first comprehensive study investigating NHS staff experiences of IHR in Scotland. This study illustrates the need for improved support and rehabilitation for ill-health care workers and that there is the potential to reduce levels of ill-health retirement. (+info)
Ill-health retirement among healthcare workers in the Southern Health Board of the Republic of Ireland.
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AIM: To determine the incidence rates, trends and medical causes of ill-health retirement (IHR) among different occupational classes in the Southern Health Board (SHB). METHODS: The 14 702 permanent employees of the SHB were divided into six occupational classes based on socio-economic status and occupational demands. The occupational classes were compared for incidence rates of IHR, age at IHR, years of service and medical causes of IHR. The total group of employees was used as the standard for statistical comparison. Incidence rates were compared using standardized IHR ratios (SIHRRs). Medical causes were compared using proportional ill-health retirement ratios (PIHRRs). RESULTS: Three hundred and three employees were granted IHR from 1994 to 2000. The overall incidence rate of IHR was 2.9 per 1000 employees per annum. The highest SIHRRs occurred in male maintenance staff at 345 (CI: 221-513) and female support staff at 158 (CI: 123-201). With regard to age and years of service, IHR peaked at a time that coincided with enhancement to pension entitlements. The common causes of IHR were musculoskeletal disorder (38%), mental illness(17%), circulatory disorder (12%) and neoplasia (8%). PIHRRs did not vary significantly between the classes. CONCLUSION: IHR was more common among manual healthcare workers. The structure of the pension scheme appeared to influence the timing of IHR. Occupational class did not appear to influence the medical causes of IHR. (+info)
Associations between obesity and receipt of screening mammography, Papanicolaou tests, and influenza vaccination: results from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study.
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OBJECTIVES: Obese Americans, who receive more care for chronic diseases, may receive fewer preventive services. We evaluated the association between body mass index (BMI) and receipt of screening mammography and Papanicolaou tests among middle-aged women and the association between BMI and receipt of influenza vaccination among the elderly. METHODS: We analyzed 2 datasets: the Health and Retirement Study (4439 women aged 50-61 years) and the Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) Study (4045 women and 2154 men aged 70 years or more). RESULTS: When BMI was greater than 18.5 kg/m2, we found an inverse dose-response relationship between BMI and receipt of screening mammography and Pap tests among White, but not Black, middle-aged women. We found a similar association between BMI and influenza vaccination among the elderly. CONCLUSIONS: Higher BMI was associated with less frequent receipt of preventive services among middle-aged White women and elderly White women and men. The Healthy People 2010 clinical preventive service goals remain elusive, especially for overweight and obese White persons. (+info)
Diagnoses of alcohol abuse and other neuropsychiatric disorders among house painters compared with house carpenters.
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The incidence of alcoholism and the incidence of other neuropsychiatric diagnoses were compared between the 767 house painters and the 1212 house carpenters, born in 1925 or later, who were members of the Stockholm branches of their respective trade unions in 1965 and who had been members for at least 10 years before 1970. Four different outcome registers were used: (1) the alcohol crime register, which contained all persons who had broken any law regulating the handling and consumption of alcohol (follow up period 1972-6). (2) The register of diagnoses at early retirement (follow up period 1971-84). (3) The register of diagnoses at discharge from inpatient psychiatric care (follow up period 1968-83). (4) The register of causes of death (follow up period 1965-86). Exposures to solvents and consumption of alcohol were evaluated by interviews with samples of the cohorts. A high average cumulative exposure to solvents was found among the painters. The mean consumption of alcohol was similar in the two cohorts. The incidence of diagnoses of neuropsychiatric disorders was higher in painters than in carpenters in all registers. Alcoholism was the most common neuropsychiatric disorder diagnosed and showed the highest relative risk. The excess of alcoholism among the painters was, however, due singularly to painters who had several registrations in the alcohol crime register or diagnoses of alcoholism in multiple registers. Thus the study implies that excessive alcohol consumption or severe damage due to alcohol, or both, but not less severe problems, were more common in painters than in carpenters. This suggests an interaction between exposure to solvents and intake of alcohol causing an increase in diagnosis of alcoholism among painters. (+info)