"What should we, as a country, do for people who aren't making it? Americans want to be generous. But Americans don't want to be chumps."
- Chana Joffe-Walt - NPR
America provides long term disability assistance through two programs, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
As highlighted in Forbes magazine and National Public Radio, increasingly more debate and discussion is revolving around America’s disability system. SSDI is projected to become insolvent in 2016 and current proposals are on the table to pull money from Social Security retirement funding, a passionate topic for many. Furthermore, there has been an increase in the usage of both SSDI and SSI prompting review of the effectiveness and efficiency of America’s long term disability system. Secondary to these trends, I anticipate disability assistance will receive additional attention in the media and everyday conversations.
As with most public assistance programs, disability assistance is very complex. This is especially true in an aging and growing population coupled with periods of strong and weak economies. Due to the complexity, I will write a series of blog posts detailing various components of America’s disability system including:
- Overview – Utilization and Costs
- How extensive is disability in America?
- For and Against
- What do I see as the roles and goals of public funded disability assistance?
- Current Programs (SSDI and SSI)
- What is currently being done for those with disabilities?
- Cited Effects
- What effects do others believe public disability assistance produces?
- Validity of Cited Effects
- What cited effects hold up under closer scrutiny?
- Proposed Changes
- What changes, if any, would I propose to America’s disability system?
Detailed below is a snapshot of disability in America. Unfortunately whenever data is presented biases are at work. That being said, I have attempted to simply present facts and avoid coloring the statistics with my personal interpretations. In future blog posts I will outline details such as how current programs define and determine if an individual is disabled and include my own analysis and interpretations of available data.
Data has been broken down to include total usage of both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) as well as individually. Please refer to titles and captions of graphs below for additional details.
Total Recipients:
~30% receive both SSDI and SSI
Only SSI provides benefits to parents who have children (0-17 years old) with disabilities. SSDI has a category of adult children, however this represents individuals > 18 years old who acquired a disability while a child.
Total Benefits Paid: (administrative fees not included; 2014 CPI adjusted where noted)
SSID benefits have increased in total dollars (both unadjusted and CPI adjusted) and % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The percent of total benefits to GDP has increased much less in SSI than SSDI. Click link below for expandable graphs of SSI and SSDI benefts.
CPI adjusted dollars per working person (red line on right vertical axis) shows the amount each working person funds long term disability assistance. In 2012, 76% of the population was considered working population. The other 24% includes children, elderly, and disabled who do not have earned income.
Graph above shows the CPI adjusted average benefit recipients receive and how this compares to the median household income (red line on vertical axis to the right). In general, SSDI average benefits are twice as much as SSI average benefits. I combined them as it gets complicated when factoring in ~30% of recipients receive both SSDI and SSI benefits.
Annual applications and percent approved for benefits:
General reason for receiving benefits: (all current beneficiaries and last year approvals)
Both the left and right vertical axis show diagnosis of only new applicants each year.
References:
SSI 2014 Annual Report
SSDI 2013 Annual Report
Census.gov
Many questions arise from the data above. Why the steady increase in recipients? Should we be concerned with the growing number of children on disability? Why the change in reasons recipients receive assistance? Is the trend from an aging and growing population? More women in the workforce? Greater awareness to those in need there is help available? Waste, fraud and abuse?
With an increasing amount of money being received by a greater number of individuals, are we champions in meeting the complex needs of our citizens or are we chumps in allowing waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer money?
Next Post Topic: Disability Part II: Roles and Goals
