Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits Research Articles

Workplace Injuries and Receipt of Benefits From Workers' Compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance.

We examine whether workers who experience permanently disabling injuries covered by workers' compensation (WC) end up on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and whether Social Security Administration (SSA) seems to offset WC payments for permanently disabling injuries against SSDI benefits, when appropriate. Methods: We capture data on WC benefit receipt from the Health and Retirement Study and link it to SSA data on WC and SSDI recipients to study descriptive information on these questions. Results: We find that SSA seems to be missing data on WC benefits for a sizable share of recipients of WC benefits and that the frequency with which SSDI benefits are reduced because of the WC offset seems surprisingly low. Conclusions: For a variety of reasons, WC benefits for permanently disabling injuries may not be appropriately offset against SSDI benefits, possibly shifting the cost of these workplace injuries to SSDI.

Who Goes on Disability when Times are Tough? The Role of Work Norms among Immigrants

We consider how work norms affect the likelihood of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in response to worsening economic conditions. By focusing on immigrants in the US, we can examine the influence of work norms in a person's home country, which we argue are exogenous to labor market prospects in the US. We find that the probability of receiving SSDI benefits is more sensitive to economic downturns among immigrants from countries where people place less importance on work. We also provide evidence that this result is not driven by differential labor market sensitivities to the business cycle or differences in other characteristics that might be correlated with norms.

Evaluating the Long-Term Effectiveness of the SGA Enhanced Services Model in Kentucky: A Follow-Up Study on the SGA Demonstration Project

During federal fiscal year (FY) 2016 and 2017, the Kentucky Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (KY OVR) implemented the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) Project, providing enhanced services to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients who also applied for services through the general Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agency. Short-term evaluative efforts revealed that consumers receiving enhanced services were more likely to be competitively employed, achieving slightly higher earnings and in a shorter period. This longer-term follow-up study indicated promising results, noting sustained differences in wages and time to employment. Higher wages and a faster path to employment can positively impact the economic outcomes of individuals receiving SSDI benefits through innovative VR service and support models.

Employment Patterns of SSI-First Awardees Who Enter SSDI After Achieving Disability-Insured Status

This article uses administrative data from the Social Security Administration to explore the employment patterns and characteristics of individuals awarded Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits between 2001 and 2009 who later became disability insured and qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). While these individuals are a small portion of all SSI and SSDI beneficiaries, they are particularly interesting because they demonstrate a desire and ability to work despite the health conditions that make them eligible for disability benefits. On average, 2.3% of SSI-first awardees enter SSDI after they become disability insured within 5 years of their SSI award. These SSI awardees are younger than other SSI awardees and are more likely to achieve work-related milestones during the 5 years after SSI award. Although awardees in this group show signs of an ability to work, they gradually start dropping out of the labor force starting 5 months before SSDI benefits begin and drop out in greater numbers through the first year of SSDI benefits. This suggests that some of them may work enough to achieve disability-insured status but stop when they enter SSDI.

The effect of economic conditions on the disability insurance program: Evidence from the great recession

We examine the effect of job displacement during the Great Recession on the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. Exploiting variation in the severity and timing of the recession across states, we estimate the effect of unemployment on SSDI applications and awards. We find the Great Recession induced nearly one million SSDI applications that otherwise would not have been filed, of which 41.8% were awarded benefits, resulting in over 400,000 new beneficiaries who made up 8.9% of all SSDI entrants between 2008 and 2012. More than one-half of the recession-induced awards were made on appeal. The induced applicants had less severe impairments than the average applicant. Only 9% had the most severe, automatically-qualifying impairments, 33% had functional impairments and no transferable skills, and the rest were denied for having insufficiently severe impairments and/or transferable skills. Our estimates imply the Great Recession increased claims processing costs by $2.960 billion during 2008–2012, and SSDI benefit obligations by $55.730 billion in present value, or $97.365 billion including both SSDI and Medicare benefits.

How Important Is Health Inequality for Lifetime Earnings Inequality?

Using a dynamic panel approach, we provide empirical evidence that negative health shocks reduce earnings. The effect is primarily driven by the participation margin and is concentrated in less educated individuals and those with poor health. We build a dynamic, general equilibrium, life cycle model that is consistent with these findings. In the model, individuals whose health is risky and heterogeneous choose to either work, or not work and apply for social security disability insurance (SSDI). Health affects individuals’ productivity, SSDI access, disutility from work, mortality, and medical expenses. Calibrating the model to the United States, we find that health inequality is an important source of lifetime earnings inequality: nearly 29 percent of the variation in lifetime earnings at age 65 is due to the fact that Americans face risky and heterogeneous life cycle health profiles. A decomposition exercise reveals that the primary reason why individuals in the United States in poor health have low lifetime earnings is because they have a high probability of obtaining SSDI benefits. In other words, the SSDI program is an important contributor to lifetime earnings inequality. Despite this, we show that it is ex ante welfare improving and, if anything, should be expanded.

Why Employment During and After COVID-19 Is a Critical Women's Health Issue.

Why Employment During and After COVID-19 Is a Critical Women's Health Issue.

How the COVID-19 pandemic could reduce near-retirees' Social Security benefits

AbstractA quirk in the Social Security benefit formula interacting with the sharp economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic could cause certain groups of near-retirees to suffer significant and permanent reductions to their Social Security retirement benefits. A sudden decline in the Social Security Administration (SSA)'s measure of economywide average wages in the year a worker turns 60 causes the Social Security benefit formula to devalue all the worker's earnings prior to age 60, resulting in a lower measure of career-average earnings and a lower benefit in retirement. A middle-income worker aged 60 in 2020 could receive an annual Social Security benefit reduction of around 9%, with losses through retirement approaching $46,000. Individuals becoming eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits would be subject to similar reductions in percentage terms. Several methods are discussed to reduce or eliminate the likelihood of similar benefit ‘notches’ occurring in the future.

Comparison of Population-Representative and Volunteer Experiments: Lessons From the Social Security Administration’s Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND)

The Benefit Offset National Demonstration (BOND) tested a $1 reduction in benefits per $2 earnings increase above the level at which Social Security Disability Insurance benefits drop from full to zero under current law. BOND included a rare and large “population-representative” experiment: It applied the rule to a nationwide, random sample of beneficiaries. BOND also included a parallel “volunteer” experiment: The same offset rules applied to a nationwide random sample of volunteers. BOND’s dual experiments offer a unique opportunity to consider the merits and limitations of these two types of experiments. The findings provide a way to illustrate the limitations of volunteer experiments relative to population experiments when, as in BOND, the goal is to produce impact estimates that are valid for the entire population, not just would be volunteers. We also highlight and compare ethical issues, outreach challenges, and cost considerations for the two types of designs.

Association between longest‐held occupation and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits receipt

The cost of the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program has increased over time though recent reports showed that disability incidence and prevalence rates have started declining. We explored whether occupation was one of the risk factors for the rising number of disabled workers who received DI benefits during 1992-2016. We used a cohort of 16 196 Health and Retirement Survey respondents between the age of 51 and 64 years who were followed from their date of entry until they received DI benefits, died, reached full retirement age, or reached the end of the follow-up period (2016). We used the extended stratified Cox proportional hazard model. Because one-third of the respondents in our cohort did not report their longest-held occupation, we used a multiple-imputation method. The hazard of receiving DI benefits was 51%, 78%, 81%, and 85% higher among workers with longest-held occupations in sales, mechanics and repair, protective services, and personal services, respectively than among workers with longest-held occupations in the reference managerial occupation. The hazard of receiving DI benefits was more than double among workers with longest-held occupations in the construction trade and extractors, transportation operation, machine operators, handlers, and food preparation than among workers with the longest-held occupation in the reference managerial occupation. Improving the overall working conditions in these occupations would help reduce worker suffering and the number of applicants for DI benefits, thereby reducing the burden of workplace injury and illness on the DI program.

Implementation and impacts of the Substantial Gainful Activity Project demonstration in Minnesota

BACKGROUND: In 2015, the state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency in Minnesota was one of two agencies that implemented the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) Project demonstration, whose innovations were designed to improve employment outcomes of nonblind VR clients receiving Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. OBJECTIVE: To present findings on the implementation experiences and the impacts the innovations had on service and employment outcomes. METHODS: The evaluation involved qualitative and quantitative methods from an office-level randomization design. Using interview and administrative data, we assessed implementation and impacts on service pacing, client engagement, and employment. RESULTS: Clients at treatment sites experienced shorter times for developing an individualized plan for employment and were less likely to drop out of services early, but the intervention had no impacts on employment or earnings. As a result of the intervention, agency leadership and staff changed their perceptions of the initial plan for employment, the value of site-based job placement staff, and Social Security Administration benefits knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: The SGA Project innovations generated positive impacts on key service delivery and client outcomes. Evaluation findings and staff experiences in implementing the innovations suggest a number of implications for other VR agencies interested in adopting features of the SGA Project innovations.

Disability Benefits and Change in Prescription Opioid Dose.

Among chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients, workers' compensation is associated with longer term prescription opioid analgesic use (OAU). The aim was to study the association between receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and course of OAU. This prospective cohort study utilized data from primary care patients diagnosed with non-cancer CLBP. The outcomes were morphine equivalent dose (MED) - categorized as no OAU, 1-50mg MED, or >50mg MED - and change in MED over time using mixed multinomial logistic regression models. Covariates included sociodemographics, pain severity, pain management characteristics, continuity of care with their physician, health-related quality of life, number of comorbid health conditions, obesity, depression, and anxiety. In adjusted analysis, SSDI vs. non-SSDI patients were more likely to be receiving >50mg MED vs. no OAU at baseline (OR = 10.19; 95% CI:1.51-68.83). Differences in OAU trajectory between SSDI groups were nonsignificant (P = 0.204). Collection of SSDI benefits was an independent predictor of higher MED at baseline and persistently higher MED during 2 years of follow-up. Providers should consider the risk of persistent, high-dose opioid use in patients receiving SSDI benefits.

The Relationship between Occupational Requirements and SSDI Activity

Evaluations of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applications are based not just on poor health, but in most cases consider the vocational factors of age, education and work experience to determine whether individuals can work. These criteria indicate that SSDI applicants must not only be in poor health, but in poor health that actually conflicts with the requirements of their occupation (and other occupations). Yet little is known about the relationship between SSDI activity and the ability to meet occupational requirements. This study devises a Health Mismatch Index, which is the share of workers in an occupation citing health-related difficulties in the Survey of Income and Program Participation that would prevent them from performing at least one requirement marked as essential for their occupation in the Occupational Requirement Survey. The results show that the most common difficulties in required abilities that result in health mismatch are lifting 25 lbs., standing for one hour, or hearing well in a conversational setting. Furthermore, occupations with a high Index have lower earnings, are more exposed to hazardous environments, and place less emphasis on high performance and problem-solving. Jobs with higher rates of workers who experience at least one difficulty with a job requirement have a higher share of workers receiving SSDI benefits within a 16-month period. Although the share of the population receiving SSDI increased from 1997 to 2010, the Index fell from 7.4 to 6.1 percent, suggesting that the increase could have been higher if not for the decline in health mismatch.

Son of Sam, Service-Connected Entitlements, and Disabled Veteran Prisoners

American veterans have been over-represented in the United States carceral system since at least the Vietnam War era. Prior to 1980, veterans who were wounded in the line of duty were entitled to hard-earned, service-connected disability benefits regardless of post-service involvement in the civilian criminal justice system. In 1979, the American media began running sensationalized stories detailing alleged abuse of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program by notorious prisoners, including New York “Son of Sam” mass murderer, David Berkowitz. In response to the outcry over these well-publicized accounts of prisoner SSDI abuse, Congress enacted a law, 38 U.S.C. § 5313, that stripped certain veteran prisoners of their service-connected disability benefits. This Article argues that the federal law that strips disabled, justice-involved veterans of their service-connected benefits as the result of non-service-connected misconduct should be repealed. Section 5313 is unjust, unwarranted, and unproductive, for at least five reasons. First, Congress enacted the statute to realize federal cost savings at the expense of a politically and socially vulnerable population: disabled, justice-involved veterans. Second, the statute is grounded in faulty logic and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation program. Third, Congress stripped disabled, justice-involved veterans of their service-connected disability benefits largely as a result of its erroneous conflation of VA disability compensation and SSDI benefits. Fourth, Section 5313 fails to take into account the evidence-based nexus between military service trauma and post-service mental health issues and related criminal behavior. Finally, revoking service-connected disability benefits impedes justice-involved veteran rehabilitation, reentry, and readjustment.

SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR): Disability Application Outcomes Among Homeless Adults.

The SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) program has been shown to increase access to Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance benefits among homeless adults. However, little empirical data exist on how or for whom SOAR achieves successful application outcomes. This study investigated applicant and application characteristics associated with disability application outcomes among homeless adults. Secondary data on 6,361 SOAR-assisted applications were obtained. Multilevel models investigated between-applicant differences in application processing time and decision as a function of applicant and application characteristics. Older age and living in an institution were associated with greater odds of application approval. Female gender and receipt of public assistance were associated with longer processing time and lower odds of approval. Except for quality review, SOAR critical components were associated with greater odds of approval. Women and adults receiving public assistance appear disadvantaged in the SOAR application process. SOAR critical components promote successful disability application outcomes.

Disability Insurance and the Great Recession

This paper reports research on the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, which is designed to provide income to support workers who become unable to work because of a severe, long-lasting disability. The research used administrative data to estimate the effect of labor market conditions, as measured by the unemployment rate, on the number of SSDI applications, the number and composition of initial allowances and denials, and the timing of applications relative to disability onset. The authors analyzed the period of the Great Recession, and compare this period with business cycle effects over the past two decades, from 1992 through 2012. The analysis isolates the quantity and composition of applicants who are induced to apply for SSDI benefits when labor market opportunities decline, and therefore provides important new evidence about the group for whom SSDI application is a substitute for labor force participation, and their impact on the SSDI program.

Social Security Disability Insurance May Reduce Benefits by 2016: Population at Financial Risk from Reductions

In the United States, 10.9 million people are receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits with an average pay of $12,000 per year. If the U.S. House of Congress fails to enact a new bill by the end of fiscal-year 2016, SSDI benefits are estimated to be reduced by $2,300 per-person per year. In the pass, the U.S. Congress has always found a way to enact new bills capable of maintains benefits at existing levels. The specific aim of this project was to report the number of people potentially at risk for experiencing an economic impact if SSDI benefits are reduced. The cross-sectional analysis used data from the American Community Survey, 2009-2013 Public Use Microdata Sample file. Characteristics on a total of 153,627 actual survey participants were used to generalize findings to 2,748,735 residents of the United States. Results indicate non-Hispanic Whites, the Pacific and South Atlantic geographic divisions are at the largest risk for being affected by changes to SSDI benefits.

Health, Homelessness, and Poverty: A Way Forward

Health, Homelessness, and Poverty: A Way Forward

Induced Entry into the Social Security Disability Program: Using Past SGA Changes as a Natural Experiment

The number of American adults receiving benefits from the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program has increased dramatically over the past several decades. A proposed solution to rising program costs is to change program rules to encourage fully or partially recovered SSDI beneficiaries to return to work. One such option is a benefit offset policy, which would reduce SSDI benefits by $1 for every $2 of earned income. While a benefit offset could generate savings from increased labor supply and program exit among current beneficiaries, it could also generate unintended costs if the more generous work rules induce significant numbers of working individuals to apply for benefits. In this paper we examine how past changes in a closely related program parameter, the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) threshold, have affected SSDI applications. We exploit changes over time and across states in real relative SGA levels, relative to local average wages. We find that a 7 percentage point (30%) increase in the real relative SGA (on par with the 1999 increase from $500 to $700 per month) was associated with a 4.7% increase in applications.

The Effects of Health Care Benefits on Health Care Use and Health

Under current law, most Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries are not eligible for Medicare until 29 months after the Social Security Administration determines the onset of their disability. During this waiting period, >1 in 5 lacks health insurance. This study investigated the effects of providing health care benefits on the health, employment, and other services of uninsured beneficiaries. New SSDI beneficiaries without health insurance were randomly assigned to receive health care benefits, health care benefits plus additional supports, or a control group. Compared with a control group, those provided health care benefits used more health care, had fewer unmet medical needs, spent less out of pocket on health care, and reported improved health. In addition, those provided the additional supports were more likely to look for work, but the supports did not affect work or SSDI benefits at this very early period. The results provide rigorous evidence that health care benefits can increase health care use and health outcomes. Longer-term follow-up is needed to fully assess the program's effects on its ultimate benefits and costs, including its long-term effects on health, employment, and benefit receipt.