The Baltimore Sun is running an article claiming that "The number of people receiving disability insurance payments from the Social Security Administration declined last year for the first time since 1983 ..." I'm not sure how they figured that since the website of the Office of Chief Actuary at Social Security shows an increase of about 12,000 rather than a decrease. However the article is correct in showing that the number of claims filed and applications approved is down sharply over the last four years. The number drawing benefits has actually declined over the last four months and there's a good chance that this decline is a trend that will continue for several years as baby boomers who went on disability benefits a few years ago age into retirement benefits. Interestingly, Stephen Goss, Social Security's Chief Actuary, is quoted in the article as saying that "The disability applications we have coming in now are even lower than we were assuming", suggesting the possibility of some change in the next projection for the Disability Trust Fund, due out sometime later this year.
This site remains very well sourced and yet numerically illiterate.
ReplyDeleteFrom 1978-1983 the number of people (disabled workers & their dependents) receiving DI benefits declined dramatically from 4.87 million to 3.81 million. !983 was the last year there was a year over year decline.
IN 2014 there were 10.931 million Di recipients down from 10.988 million in 2013.
The number of persons receiving DI WORKER benefits went up very slightly by 12,000 (0.13%). So it is the number of DEPENDENTS that fell. From 2013 to 2014, about 9,000 fewer spouses were receiving DI , and 60,000 fewer minor children were receiving benefits.