From Outcomes Following Termination of Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits, an article in the Social Security Bulletin, the agency's scholarly journal:
We examined the experiences of former Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) disabled-worker beneficiaries in the years following termination of benefits due to medical improvement or work. Using Social Security Administration data, we found that approximately 16 percent of former DI-only beneficiaries whose benefits were terminated because of medical improvement between 2005 and 2014 returned to DI entitlement within 5 years of termination. By contrast, the DI reentitlement rate during the same period among those whose benefits were terminated because of work was significantly higher (about 32 percent). Fewer than half (45 percent) of former DI-only beneficiaries whose benefits were terminated because of medical improvement had average post-termination earnings exceeding the poverty threshold, compared with 71 percent of beneficiaries with work-based terminations. Age, entitlement duration, the likelihood of medical improvement, and certain diagnoses—especially psychotic disorders, intellectual disorders, neoplasms, and injuries—correlated with earnings levels and the likelihood of DI reentitlement in the years following benefit termination.
1 comment:
"Age at benefit termination is the most significant differentiator between former beneficiaries who did or did not attain economic self-sufficiency following benefit termination. Regardless of termination reason or pre-termination program eligibility, former beneficiaries who earned above the poverty threshold and maintained independence from the disability programs were younger than those who did not. This is not surprising given that younger age corresponds with better work outcomes and age is a specific consideration in the disability determination process."
This data from the study lends support to the argument for NOT changing the age categories in the medical vocational rules. If there is a strong correlation between age and inability to earn above SGA amongst those with severe disabilities, then the grid rules make sense as they are.
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