The Social Security Administration has approved disability benefits for hundreds of Spanish-speaking Puerto Ricans because they do not speak English. 

An audit conducted by the Office of Inspector General has revealed that the agency has been incorrectly applying rules intended to offer financial assistance to people who are illiterate or cannot speak English in the United States.

Under the current rules, Puerto Ricans are allowed to receive disability benefits for their inability to speak English with fluency. Citizens of the U.S. territory live on a mostly Spanish-speaking country. 

“We found the Agency did not make exceptions regarding the English-language grid rules for claimants who reside in Puerto Rico, even though Spanish is the predominant language spoken in the local economy," said the Office of Inspector General, according to the Washington Free Beacon. 

The audit announced that a person applying for disability in Puerto Rico who could not speak English would be able to “increase his/her likelihood of receiving disability benefits.”

As of now there is no system set in place by the agency to keep a count of the number of beneficiaries who receive disability insurance for not being able to speak English.

The Office of Inspector General has identified 218 cases, from 2011 and 2013, wherein Puerto Ricans were awarded disability due to “an inability to communicate in English.”

A full 4 percent of the disability hearings in Puerto Rico involved examining the individual’s ability to speak, read, write, and understand the English language.

The Office of Inspector General stated that although 95 percent of Puerto Ricans speak Spanish at home, according to the rules currently in place, a Spanish-speaking nurse working in Puerto Rico would be deemed “unskilled.”

The Social Security Administration explained to The Office of Inspector General that the rules are applied in a one-size-fits-all manner.

The audit stated that the “SSA managers at various disability decision levels stated Social Security is a national program, and the grids must be applied to the national economy, regardless of local conditions.”