The Social Security Administration has released the Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2007.
Below is a table showing the final outcome of claims for recent years. The first percentage is defined as "Rate determined by dividing awards by all applications minus pending claims for that year" and the second percentage is defined as "Rate determined by dividing medical allowances by all medical decisions for that year." However you do the numbers, it has become significantly more difficult to get Social Security disability benefits since George W. Bush became President, even if you ignore the enormous increase in delays during the Bush Administration.
1999 | 56.0 | 61.3 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | 56.0 | 62.5 | |||||||
2001 | 55.4 | 62.7 | |||||||
2002 | 52.2 | 60.6 | |||||||
2003 | 47.7 | 59.4 | |||||||
2004 | 41.9 | 58.3 | |||||||
2005 | 40.5 | 56.3 | |||||||
2006 | 33.7 | 50.9 |
Another table shows that Social Security is terminating disability benefits due to work activity for one-half of one per cent of disability recipients each year. Thank goodness for Ticket to Work!
You are aware, of course, that 1999 was the peak year, for the award and allowance rates. If you look at the 2002 edition of the publication, in 1995 the award rate was 48.5 percent and the allowance rate was 53.9. In fact, The first 4 years of Clinton's reign saw a drop of about 4 percentage points. But I'm sure that's Bush's fault, too.
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