Below are the total number of persons newly approved for Disability Insurance Benefits by the Social Security Administration over the last three years. The meme being promoted on the right is that the number of people going to Social Security disability is soaring and the program is completely out of control. That meme lacks a basis in reality.
| 2010 | 1,026,988 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 998,979 | ||||||||
| 2012 | 960,206 |
Charles,
ReplyDeletethat about a million people are added to DIB rolls every year may seem small (oh, we're a country of 315 mil or so, so that's like 1/3 of a percent), but let's mention some other numbers, shall we?
About 25% of our population is under 18, and about 14% are over 65--so cut nearly 40% from 315 mil to get the pool of "working age adults eligible for DIB." (Source: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html)
Then, remember that your numbers are NEWLY APPROVED people--not total DIB recipients. There are already many people receiving DIB. Just in those three years you cite, nearly 1.5% of working age adults went out on DIB. How many went out/were already out on SSI?
When you consider these other numbers, your stats show rather significant growth of a pool that is already rather large.
But that isn't his point. He's saying that the narrative being spun by conservatives, that the current disability APPROVAL RATE is soaring, is not supported by the objective data.
ReplyDeleteIf you're upset about the number of existing beneficiaries, you should support more money being allocated to SSA for more CDRs.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 11:46: According to the post: "The meme being promoted on the right is that the number of people going to Social Security disability is soaring..." which is NOT the rate. So Anonymous @ 10:30 is actually correct.
ReplyDelete12:22, not to split hairs, but look at Charles's syntax - "the number of people going to Social Security disability" seems to imply a continuous rate (i.e., per year). Certainly doesn't refer to the amount of existing beneficiaries. I never said 10:30 was incorrect, just that the post misses the original point.
ReplyDeletein 2012, only 1.8 million new jobs were created vs nearly 1 million new recipients of DIB. and of course, that doesn't include SSI.
ReplyDeleteand you don't have a problem with that?
Anon 12:35,
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with it. If you look at the demographic trends (more baby boomers in disability prone years and more women qualifying for SSD), we should be getting a significant increase in the number of people actually approved for disability benefits each year. Add to that a large increase in poverty, which makes more people with disabilities financially qualified for SSI.
The fact that the yearly numbers of people approved for disability are actually going down despite strong demographic factors that should be increasing the number, suggests that it is harder to get approved for disability. That's reinforced by demonstrably lower approval rates at all levels of adjudication within the agency. Semantics aside, Charles has a valid point.
@ 5:21
ReplyDeleteThe problem with your argument is that it's based on the biggest flaw with the disability system --- the GRID rules. Making generalized statements about the ability to work based on ones age is horrific. We should be looking at each application individually. Maybe that 50 y/ o limited to sedentary RFC truly can't work. But I guarantee you that 99% of 50 year olds could absolutely perform full time sedentary work.
"Making generalized statements about the ability to work based on one's age is horrific"
ReplyDelete...2 sentences later...
"But I guarantee you that 99% of 50 year olds could absolutely perform full time sedentary work."
Anon 2:22: where's the "like" button when you need it?
ReplyDelete