Create R&S page on VA disability vs. SSDI

[laurwill]

Issue Description

Claudia from Social Security Administration asked us to add content to VA.gov explaining the difference between VA disability and Social Security disability.

We couldn't find internal VA data related to frequency of Veterans asking this question, but semrush shows a search volume in the 200s for several related key phrases.

We'll plan to draft a new R&S page in early Q4 to explain the difference between these 2 benefits (might be similar to this R&S on pension vs disability).

We'll base our content on this PDF from Claudia:https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/9ef51976-f971-49b7-a10c-1828a9796584/download

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Tasks

• [x] Draft R&S page (Katherine)
• [x] Review (Laura)
• [x] Copyedit (Megan)
• [x] Send to Claudia for feedback (Laura)
• [ ] Update as needed
• [ ] Copyedit w/ prepub checklist (Megan)
• [ ] Publish (Megan)
• [ ] Notify Claudia page is live (Laura)

Acceptance Criteria

• [ ] New R&S page is live

[laurwill]

Hey @katherine-fung , this is a non-urgent writing task that you can jump into whenever you have time. I have the background on this, so let me know whenever you'd like to chat!

[katherine-fung]

Hi @laurwill,

I'm attaching a draft of the R&S article here:

https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/4a0106e5-e78d-4ea9-abd5-934ee18393f0/download

I put some questions and other options for language in the comments.

Also noting that the PDF had a table comparing the 2 programs, which highlighted that VA disability allows for partial disability payments based on a scale, whereas SSDI has "all or nothing payments."

I didn't note this as a specific difference between the programs in the draft. I noted what each program bases their eligibility and payments on -- i.e. SSDI is for people who can't work; SSDI payments vary according to how much you've worked and your age, while VA disability payments vary according to the severity of your disability. Outside of this info, it seemed in the weeds to get into partial vs. non-partial.

[laurwill]

Hey @katherine-fung , nice work on this! Here's the word doc with the notes we talked about on zoom. I'll take another look after you update! And if it feels like it's getting long, we can turn the bolded "va disability" and "ssdi" intros into H2s — we can make this a detail page instead of a single Q&A to allow for more characters and formatting. ssdi vs va disability.docx

[katherine-fung]

Hi @laurwill,

posting this back for us to review over Zoom! https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/2bf1014c-6667-453f-b9ca-df1c7e61694f/download

[katherine-fung]

Hi @laurwill,

posting this back for us to review over Zoom! https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/2bf1014c-6667-453f-b9ca-df1c7e61694f/download

[katherine-fung]

Hi @laurwill - I don't know if you've started reviewing this yet, but I was tweaking my note about VA disability and SSI, and I realized I never defined SSI!

Posting with a tweak:

Note: VA disability payments don’t affect SSDI payments. But VA disability payments could affect eligibility and payments for another Social Security disability program called Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The SSI program counts VA disability payments as income. The higher your income, the lower the SSI payments you may qualify for.

https://app.zenhub.com/files/133843125/54e01fe4-0e61-4b0b-8b92-7fc734e81904/download

[katherine-fung]

Hi @laurwill - thanks for reviewing this page with me! I'm posting it back with an external CTA for SSDI:

http://preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=51017

[laurwill]

Thanks so much @katherine-fung ! I made these final tweaks:

• Adjusted CTAs to be "learn more" about each benefit, and removed links for more info in the first 2 sections
• Adjusted intro to specify that if you have a service-connected disability that prevents you from working, you may be eligible for both benefits
• Adjusted income limit bullet in SSDI section to more closely match how SSA describes this limit Let me know if you have questions about anything I changed!

@megzehn , this new R&S page is ready for copyedit: http://preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=51017

[megzehn]

Hi @laurwill!

I reviewed this, and it looks good to me. I just made a minor tweak in the second paragraph. Let me know if you have any issues!

[laurwill]

Hey @megzehn , Beth suggested a slightly different structure for this page, so I made a few adjustments. Could you copyedit the updates? Sorry to send this to you twice! I think the easiest thing would be to compare revisions to make sure I didn't introduce any errors.

[megzehn]

Hi @laurwill, I reviewed the changes and they look good!

[laurwill]

Thanks Megan! I sent this to Claudia, our SSA contact, for an accuracy review. I'll update when we hear back — moving this to blocked for now.

[coforma-terry]

@laurwill will follow up on this.

[laurwill]

I followed up, no response yet, still blocked.

[laurwill]

Just kidding! Claudia (original contact at SSA) just responded — she's left that team, but copied in 2 new contacts Tim Grieb and Tameka Taylor to review the draft and get back to us.

[laurwill]

Very very belated update here: @bethpotts thanks for offering to pick up this work, I just forwarded you the response from SSA (which I meant to reply to and completely lost track of for far too long, my apologies).

They suggested some changes and I had updated the Drupal node with edits for site style — mostly minor stuff, but this bullet is different enough that we might want an accuracy check?

Let me know if you need anything else!

[strelichl]

Since Beth is taking this over I'm moving this to the OCTO swimlane