Draft Bill at the State Capitol Would Repeal Wisconsin Law Prevent People From Receiving Both SSDI and UI Benefits

Wednesday, October 8th, 2025 -- 10:00 AM

(Beatrice Lawrence, Wisconsin Public Radio) A draft bill circulating in the state Legislature would repeal Wisconsin laws that prevent people from receiving both SSDI and UI benefits.

However, according to Beatrice Lawrence with the Wisconsin Public Radio, it would still penalize workers with disabilities by slashing the amount of money they can receive from UI.

It’s the latest in an ongoing debate within the state government over whether workers who receive federal disability payments should also be eligible to get unemployment benefits from the state and, if so, how much.

The statutory ban on receiving both types of benefits first went into effect in 2013. At that time, Republican lawmakers decided it constituted “double dipping” or even fraud.

“When these laws were passed, there was this stereotype or presumption that once you are disabled, you stop working completely,” labor and employment attorney Victor Forberger told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “That simply is not true.”

“Lots of disabled people who get SSDI benefits work either part time, and some even full time,” Forberger said. “That Social Security benefit they’re receiving is usually not enough to live on, so they need additional work.”

During the pandemic in 2020, the state Department of Workforce Development, or DWD, publicly acknowledged that the laws were likely discriminatory and stated that the ban, “ran contrary to agency policy to protect against such discrimination,” according to a statement from Haley McCoy, DWD communications director.

However, “The agency (was) obliged to follow the law until either legislation or a court enjoined it,” McCoy wrote. In a 2021 class action lawsuit, Forberger represented Wisconsin workers who challenged those laws, including Neuman, who was unemployed at that time.

They won last year when a federal judge ruled that the laws do discriminate against people with disabilities, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

In July this year, the same federal judge ordered a temporary injunction preventing the DWD from denying future unemployment claims because of SSDI. Now, DWD is being ordered to pay back people like Neuman who were denied jobless pay over the last decade.

“DWD will continue to meet the requirements of the court’s order and any legislation that is signed into law,” according to the same DWD statement. Forberger said he expects notices to go out to those eligible sometime in October.

Once those notices are out, recipients will have 90 days to file for compensation.

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