Non-profit advocacy group Our Generation released a report Wednesday outlining the rapid growth of the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
“The rising costs of entitlement programs like Social Security Disability Insurance threaten seniors and the financial security of the whole country,” said the group’s executive director, MacMillin Slobodien.
According to the group, “5.9% of working age Americans are receiving some form of disability benefit, either SSDI or Supplemental Security Income.” Approximately the same number of people live in New York City, and the figure is expected to increase over the next few years.
The SSDI program “has morphed from a program for permanently disabled workers with a substantial work history who were over the age of 50, to a rapidly growing program covering increasing numbers of marginally disabled workers,” Our Generation adds.
Recent reports have exposed the insolvency of the program as well as the doubling-dipping that occurs between Social Security benefits and unemployment.
The Washington Post’s Charles Lane mused in July: “For many workers, SSDI creates a quasi-right not to work.”
“This paradox is getting expensive. SSDI spending has doubled as a percentage of gross domestic product in the last 25 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office,” wrote Lane.
The report, titled “Social Security Disability Insurance: An Entitlement in Need of Reform,” urges lawmakers to make reforms to the SSDI program to “save roughly $50 billion annually by 2030, enough to erase around 11% of the total Social Security long-term total deficit.”
Suggestions to do this include tightening eligibility requirements, creating greater oversight power for the Social Security Administration and creating a tax incentive to reward employers who keep individuals with disabilities on the job.
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