Social Security has just published National Beneficiary Survey: Disability Statistics, 2015. It contains a table from giving the educational backgrounds of recipients of the disability benefits it administers:
- Did not complete high school or GED 28.3%
- High school diploma 42.6%
- GED 7.7%
- Special education certificate 4.1%
- Some college or postsecondary vocational 13.7%
- Associate's degree or vocational diploma 7.5%
- Bachelor's degree 4.9%
- Some graduate work or graduate or professional degree 2.9%
17 comments:
You have the right to fail.
Stay in school kids.
Here's a story that states what the current status for degrees in the U.S.A. are overall (from about a year ago).
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-more-americans-have-college-degrees-than-ever-before
Again, the disability program is being used to solve a problem it was not intended to solve.
Similar stats for population as a whole https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html
Less than HS no GED 10.4%
High School Diploma 26.0%
GED 2.9%
Some College 16.3%
AA or Vocational 4.4%
College Degree 21.3%
Graduate work or professional Degree 12.9%
So, on the whole, disability beneficiaries are far less educated than the general population. Not really a surprise but the extent of the difference is impressive.
@12:42
I don't think I get what you are saying in the context of this post? Isn't information about educational level and training important in determining whether a person can do a particular job?
@4:35,
@12:42 is saying that claimants and their representatives think that the disability program can solve every social ill in this country. What they should do is call their Congressman, Senator, and the President and get them to solve social ills.
P.S. Social Security IS NOT a job placement agency. Social Security determines whether a person can do a particular job in light of the limitations they experience stemming from their impairments as documented by the OBJECTIVE medical evidence, not their subjective complaints.
If only all of us could be brain surgeons, or Hollywood movie moguls, or Wall street hedge fund heroes. Oh, that's right, if we all were some of you blowhard pompous asses wouldn't be so special. I am well educated but years of combined worker's compensation and ssa work have demonstrated to me by my common sense that it's the uneducated that do a lot of the shit work that keeps this country going and sustain the career ending injuries that shorten their lives and careers. The system isn't attempting to remedy this but naturally gets used more by those who have the most health risks in their careers or working lives. No wonder we are living through the second American Gilded Age with attitudes like some that have commented here. Hope and pray you stay healthy, wealthy and wise my friends. A dose of humility can be around any American corner nowadays.
The reason for this is simple; white collar jobs are more easily retained when a physical injury happens. Jobs that require less education are usually more physically intensive.
Makes sense. Alot of disability claims are for mental impairments that have affected the claimants their whole lives and interfered with schooling, long before they apply for benefits.
Or, to flip the story:
People with a bachelor's degree or higher are unlikely to receive SSDI.
See https://www.cbpp.org/blog/4-reasons-why-disability-insurance-is-especially-important-to-less-educated-workers.
Or, you could look at the data and draw the conclusion that SSA discriminates against those with a degree! It would be interesting to see the percentages of education of applicants as well. The grids are designed to eliminate people with degrees while allowing much lesser handicapped people in with less than a high school education. Is there really that much difference between a 50 year-old office worker with a high school education and 48 year-old with a college degree who drives a forklift? I would argue the 50 year-old has more transferable skills in the real world.
Younger people are significantly more likely than older people to have graduated college (and high school, for that matter). No doubt a disproportionate number of disability beneficiaries have low level of education but you must compare them to their age cohorts.
Bogus correlation. Lower education tends to put people in more physically demanding jobs. It is not surprising. These stats are trying to imply people are filing to SSD/SSI simply because they do not have good jobs in their 50s. There may be some truth to it for some but not the majority.
I agree that people with less education tend to go into more labor intensive careers as I see a number of stockers, CNAs, truck drivers, home health aides aide, construction laborers, etc. What's odd, though, is I see far fewer RNs, physical therapists, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, HVAC techs, or cabinet makers despite those jobs all being medium to very heavy in nature. Undoubtedly part of that is because there might be more unskilled jobs than skilled jobs in the economy, but I would imagine it's also because those skilled jobs pay a bunch more and give more of an incentive to get back to that work than $9.25 an hour at Walmart with no benefits.
College graduates tend to be more intelligent and have accomplished more (finishing a 4 year degree) than others so if faced with the prospect of being on disability long term are more apt to find a way to be productive in some other line of work. It also helps they are more apt to be in white collar jobs where things like bad backs are less apt to occur and less apt to keep them from working if they do occur.
Disability is higher in poor low education areas because we are using the disability program to cure other social ills.
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