Social Security Disability Fund A Last Resort For The Unemployed As Benefits Dry Up

As more jobless people run out of unemployment insurance, they are turning to a last resort to make ends meet: government disability benefits.

Two new studies cited by The Wall Street Journal find that when jobless Americans exhaust their unemployment benefits, they turn to Social Security disability benefits to survive. The number of Americans receiving Social Security disability benefits has risen to 10.6 million since 2002 -- an increase of 47 percent, the WSJ reports.

With more and more people coming to depend on Social Security, the program's long-term prospects are starting to seem endangered. Most people who start receiving disability insurance stay in the program until they retire, and the average person in the disability program ultimately receives more than $240,000 in benefits, according to a 2006 study by economists David Autor and Mark Duggan cited by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers.

More than 10 percent of Americans between the ages of 50 and 65 without access to $5,000 apply for Social Security disability benefits right after they run out of unemployment insurance, according to the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. By contrast, less than 1 percent apply for the disability program when they are still about 50 weeks away from exhausting their unemployment benefits. A November report by Boston College research economist Matthew Rutledge reached a similar conclusion, finding that jobless Americans are more likely to apply for disability benefits once they are about to run out of unemployment insurance.

Out-of-work Americans are now without jobs for longer than ever. The average duration of unemployment reached a record high of 40.9 weeks in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And it's thought that cutting unemployment benefits doesn't only hurt the people receiving them. The United States would lose nearly 500,000 jobs by the end of 2014 if Congress does not continue the extension of unemployment insurance, according to the CEA.

News that jobless Americans are relying on more disability benefits arrives as Social Security is increasingly coming under attack. Texas governor Rick Perry called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" at a Republican presidential debate, and Rep. Paul Ryan, who many consider an intellectual leader of the Republican party, has said he agrees.

Congress recently agreed to extend unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut for two months, but as the battle has become more partisan, it is unclear whether House Republicans will agree to extend unemployment insurance for another year.

Comments

[43yearsuntilretirement]

03:56 PM on 12/30/2011

REPOST - I process SSDI and SSI claims. Good luck getting approved if you are an adult with a work history and a measurable­, provable physical condition. Especially if you completed an education above 12th grade.

Its much easier to approve someone with depression and anxiety that has never tried working and never finished high school, yet produced 7 children but near impossible to get someone with a 30 year work history that has had multiple surgeries for a heart or a back condition. If you an incompeten­t teen mom that can't figure out how to control your babies asthma and take her to the ER every month every time she wheezes when you smoke, that has a better chance of getting approved than a mom that is well versed on her kids disability and how to treat him every time he has an epileptic seizure.

Sadly, a vast majority of claims I am able to approve are for children and for adults that have never worked or put in a month or two ten years prior.

The program needs a major overhaul because it fails to assist the people it should and people that try by working, having an education, etc. are penalized. I see more and more claims for older Americans that I know have no chance of finding work again because of age discrimina­tion and physcial impairment­s by getting older/disa­bilities but cannot approve them because it is assumed they can find a desk job. Its discouragi­ng.

[FireThemAll2012]

09:27 AM on 12/30/2011

Here's an idea. Instead of trying to get another benefit or hand out, go get a job!

[Southern Cali Native84]

12:36 PM on 12/30/2011

Another ignorant comment......

Have you been living underneath a rock? Obviously there aren't ENOUGH jobs for everyone who is jobless. I do have a job, in case you're wondering, but I've educated myself enough to know how the job market is out there. Apparently, you have not. Get your head out of your @_ss!

[laser focused]

02:32 PM on 01/02/2012

oh there are enough jobs....see you even got one, but for the others, its are they smart enough and capable enough to get one. you see for everyone of these sympathizing and enabling comments people like you make we have to counter it. so far we're winning.

[bdonwat]

04:33 PM on 05/18/2012

Not enough educated to apply for the jobs available. Read up. We are having to insource a skilled labor work force. Tons of jobs out there.

[AZreb]

07:59 AM on 12/30/2011

Would have thought they would apply for welfare funds and not disability since many steps are needed for proof of disability. Either way, it will cost more in the long run for both disabillity and welfare programs.

[Patriot Games]

02:46 AM on 12/30/2011

When layoffs came to the Shared Services Group Procurement Dept. at Boeing 19 people, all those laid off were over 50 years old. Their jobs sent to Bangalore India. I was one of the nineteen. Even though I could show statistics that I was the most productive employee in the department, I lost my job because I did not have a degree. Forty years experience and millions of dollars of inovative improvements in manufacturing, inventory, record keeping and suddenly I am not capable. I've earned my disability status. I was unable to do the career of my choice as a fireman because I had a defective heart valve. Before you start complaining, I qualify for my disability by virtue of having a 15% ejection fraction where normal is 55%. If you and I were to race to the corner I would pass out half way. But I can sit on my butt with the best of them and I would love to still be working.

[justanoldhippie]

11:50 PM on 12/29/2011

It is not easy to get on disability, trust me.

So, we have a segment of Americans who have a certifiable disability, who chose to work rather than go on disability (as working probably paid more than disability), AND were one of the first "to go" during layoff's caused by this economic meltdown... uh, because those on disability require more workplace concessions than their non-disabled, healthy co-workers.

The only way that I can see a "healthy" unemployed American go from unemployment to qualifying for disability benefits is to get on disability via a "mental health" diagnosis like severe depression.

Now we are going to have insane "righties" blaming the problem with social security being those who go from unemployment straight to disability, as though it is easy to do... and they didn't want to work anyways!

I have had fourteen surgeries and procedures after a "recreational" spine/spinal cord injury and couldn't even get "short term disability" coverage during a one year "time off" due to the need for a spinal surgery, recovery and rehab period... I have nerve damage in both arms, muscle wasting, bladder dysfunction, and ongoing spinal pathology that results in "paranormal" autonomic dysfunction/symptoms, and constant pain... and do not qualify for disability.

I could probably convince a shrink that I was depressed enough to be "disabled", though (as what normal person wouldn't be with everything that is wrong with me). What a game.

This article is dum+b.

[authorized-user]

10:15 PM on 12/29/2011

"More than 10 percent of Americans between the ages of 50 and 65 without access to $5,000 apply for Social Security disability benefits"

No kidding, at this age you probably have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than getting a F/T job.

[MiddleMolly]

01:02 AM on 12/30/2011

It doesn't mention the percentage who actually GET social security disability. Read the account just above this one.

[bdaved]

05:21 PM on 12/30/2011

That's a bit of a misleading quotation; the actual table from which that information is drawn is titled "Percent of Unemployed Workers Age 50 to 65 Years Applying for SSDI benefits, By Weeks Before and After Unemployment Benefits Expire and Access to $5000". That's a much more limited set than the group included in your comment above. The point of the table is that the statistic only applies to that specific smaller group.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/ui_report_final_121511.pdf
The table is at the bottom of page 10.

[robinhood1]

08:28 PM on 12/29/2011

The disability program pays higher monthly benefits than the standard SS program. Look at your annual SS statement. It is certainly an incentive to stretch the truth, especially if you can't find a job.

[bdaved]

08:47 PM on 12/29/2011

You really don't know what you're talking about, do you?

[No Dogma Freedom]

09:56 PM on 12/29/2011

You are dreaming, in that people can stretch the truth! The SSA System is brutal and SSDI as SSD is is even worse: you are not going to get buy a person(s): Point in fact, many who need it have to get a lawyer now just to get it!

Thanks GOP!

Some people die waiting to get on it, better yet for the GOP or end up on the street - or worse for all in prison for they have to steal to live. Than again the GOP favors for profit prisons they can die in their at 50,000 a year compared to the 15,000 a year we shell out!

SSDI Does pay more- then again - sick people need that to live and most have no savings by the way:

SOCIAL SECURITY NEWS
YOUR SOURCE FOR NEWS AFFECTING THE U.S. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION COPYRIGHT CHARLES T. HALL
http://socsecnews.blogspot.com/

[ChrisDWard]

07:53 PM on 12/29/2011

I don't understand the label of "Ponzi scheme" that is often applied to SS by those in the body (Congress) who created it, as if its beneficiaries had anything to do with the way its funded, or could opt out of it when it became law. If SS is a Ponzi scheme, then fix it so it's not a Ponzi scheme!!! And when did the Congress begin raiding the SS trust fund? I gather the Cons hate it because they don't want to pay it back? Is that it? As far as I'm concerned I was forced to loan the government money throughout my entire working life. Had I had the op to invest that money, or just keep it in an interest bearing account, it'd be a tidy stash by now. And now they want to get rid of it? It makes no sense to me for people like Rick Perry or Congressman to now blame me because it's a "ponzi scheme" - it that's true, YOU created that monster - so it's up to you to fix it. This anti-SS talk is like the captain of the ship running it aground, then blaming the passengers because there was an accident!!! I'd like to see total phonys like Rick Perry show real leadership by foregoing his govt-funded $90K+ annual retirement from the state of Texas.

[No Dogma Freedom]

10:02 PM on 12/29/2011

Let us start with some history - to catch the wind of the GOP and other BS on SSA

Republicans tell us that our grandchildren are being saddled with impossible debt burdens because of handouts to retirees and the poor. $3 trillion wars are necessary and have nothing to do with the growth of the public debt. The public debt is due to unnecessary “welfare” that workers paid for with a 15% payroll tax.

When you hear a Republican sneer “entitlement,”

he or she is referring to Social Security and Medicare, for which people have paid 15% of their wages for their working lifetime. But when a Republican sneers, he or she is saying “welfare.”

What I am about to tell you might come as a shock, but it is the absolute truth, which you can verify for yourself by going online to the government’s annual OASDI and HI reports. According to the official 2010 Social Security reports, between 1984 and 2009 the American people contributed $2 trillion, that is $2,000 billion, more to Social Security and Medicare in payroll taxes than was paid out in benefits.
What happened to the surplus $2,000 billion, or $2,000,000,000,000.

The government spent it.

Over the past quarter century, $2 trillion in Social Security and Medicare revenues have been used to finance wars and pork-barrel projects of the US government.

http://www.infowars.com/stealing-from-social-security-to-pay-for-wars-and-bailouts/

[ChrisDWard]

01:26 PM on 12/30/2011

Absolutely sickening. I have never before been so disgusted with Congress than I am right now. Thanks for the info.

[Yannick Melancon]

07:24 PM on 12/29/2011

In the end, people are left with nothing, to loose everything to survive, and to live on the streets. More ways to uprgrade the poverty. Let the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. All about the whealth of the people, not very convincing!

[GimmeShelter69]

04:54 PM on 12/29/2011

It's very grim out there for the jobless as we watch 2011 die. Meanwhile, on Wall Street (where the 1% love to romp and play with their $millions$) the stock markets are drifting higher! Someone on the Market Watch website naively asked "what is the good news to make this occur?" But...does it matter really? Do the Big Boyz on the Street need any valid positive data to allow the markets to magically "drift" higher at year's end, thereby fattening their stock portfolios and dividend checks? No. All this nonsense occurring in the nefarious world of predatory capitalism made me imagine what it would be like if the same rules applied to America's struggling classes that the untouchable 1% enjoy. Like wouldn't it be great for normal people to magically drift into stable, well-paying jobs, whether they "deserved" them or not? Or for millions of underwater homeowners to magically drift into positive equity, regardless of their position on the socioeconomic ladder or the size of their home ? Wouldn't that be great? ;-)"

[No Dogma Freedom]

04:01 PM on 12/29/2011

If you think getting on SSDI is easy you are dreaming people!

You have to have a Dr's report and it must be cross referenced by an independent auditor.

1) You well have to show you can't work or have a condition that makes all work - out of reach
2) You well based on your work history get from 900.000 to 1,200 - top end = 1% 2,500 a month!
3) you may need a lawyer to get on it
4) You well be interrogated pretty much - every aspect of your living!

____> Point in Fact____> Most People on the Streets are up for SSD or SSDI but they can't read or think well enough to get on it! You need to a lawyer at points now too, boot!

***SSA*** was sacked for 2 trillion to pay for the wars
***Banks*** GOT(( 16)) Trillion as you get Jack!

WELCOME TO HELL

[thenightcrawler]

06:04 PM on 12/29/2011

You're right. The people who think that SSDI is a panacea and that "anybody" can just go collect it have no idea what they're talking about. Many of them appear to be basing their opinion on hearsay about how their sister's roommate's mother's friend easily got on SSDI even though there was nothing wrong with her. SSDI is really, really hard to get unless you are totally disabled, and even if you do get it, you ain't gonna be livin' luxe off SSDI money.

[Gottlieb]

09:01 PM on 12/29/2011

Scapegoating people with disabilities is wrong. What I find most reprehensible about the system are the private insurance companies who demand beneficiaries apply for SSDI as a condition to receive private disability insurance payments. People with broken legs or other temporary disabling conditions are forced to clog the SSDI application system by private insurance companies hoping beneficiaries will give up trying to get SSDI so the insurance company can stop paying valid insurance claims since the premium payer didn't follow all their instructions. SSDI doesn't pay for a luxury lifestyle but it supplies dignity and independence.

[Gottlieb]

08:54 PM on 12/29/2011

My SSDI lawyers were happy to take me on as a client since I was a slam dunk. My SSDI lawyers don't make much and spend even more time helping the homeless who define self defeating behavior by being hard to contact, get to appointments, and hearings. I am glad I beat the rush of applicants and dismantling of the social safety net. HELL is the best description of the whole SSDI process.

[jcolvin325]

03:31 PM on 12/29/2011

Tell them you're a liberal...that's usually good or at least a handicapped parking permit.

[No Dogma Freedom]

04:03 PM on 12/29/2011

tell it to the Veterans with no legs and or one leg

[laser focused]

02:37 PM on 01/02/2012

they're not driving anyway

[1oldhippie]

02:35 PM on 12/29/2011

Here's a thought. Legalize and TAX pot. The legalization would create NEW jobs and revenue would be saved by no longer tying up the justice system. Then use the tax proceeds to retire anyone over 55 whose been unemployed for two years, since the chance of anyone hiring them is slim/none.
The end result would be lower unemployment and money in the hands of those who will spend it, creating the demand businesses are waiting for, to begin hiring again.

[parabq]

02:11 PM on 12/29/2011

The American people should be physically overrunning congress and kick every single congress person out. They have screwed everything up so bad it will never come back. But they sit up there as "fat cats" laughing at their "american slaves"

[jcolvin325]

03:29 PM on 12/29/2011

And Obama out while they are at it.

[No Dogma Freedom]

04:03 PM on 12/29/2011

WALL STREET OWNS THE USA AS THE BANKS

[WoolyBumblebee]

01:26 PM on 12/29/2011

The USA never ceases to amaze me with the horrible and inhumane treatment of their fellow citizens. Disgusting! The rest of the world is watching and shaking their heads.