1. SOCIAL SECURITY
DISABILITY INSURANCE:
A VITAL LIFELINE FOR
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
HDadvocates HealthAndDisability
thinkbeyondthelabel.com | illinoishealthmatters.org | ourfamilysecurity.com | ILwarriortowarrior.org | hdadvocates.org
LISA D. EKMAN, JD, MSW
FEDERAL POLICY DIRECTOR
LEKMAN@HDADVOCATES.ORG

2. WHY IS SSDI IMPORTANT?
• SSDI benefits provide access to health care
and long-term services and supports
• They lift many people with disabilities and
their family members out of poverty
• For many, benefits earned are the only thing
keeping them from homelessness and
destitute poverty

3. SSDI BENEFICIARY
CHARACTERISTICS
SSDI beneficiaries are a diverse group, including
people with
• Heart disease
• End stage renal failure
• Significant intellectual
disabilities
• Severe mental illness
• Severe physical
disabilities
• Advanced stage
cancers
• Debilitating arthritis
• Deafness
• Blindness

4. SSDI BENEFICIARY
CHARACTERISTICS
Some are terminally ill
• About 1 in 5 male SSDI beneficiaries and just
under 1 in 6 female SSDI beneficiaries die
within first five years of receiving benefits
Tend to be older
• About 7 in 10 are over 50
• Approximately 3 in 10 are over 60
Low educational attainment
• 42% did not finish high school
• 35.3% have high school diploma or equivalent

5. SSDI beneficiaries should be given every support, service
and encouragement to work, but available data show that a
large percentage will never have the capacity for ongoing
work at a significant level.
CAN A SIGNIFICANT
PERCENTAGE WORK AND
BECOME SELF-SUPPORTING?

6. Kathy Ruffing, Social Security Disability Insurance is Vital to Workers With Severe Impairments, Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, August 9, 2012. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3818
REJECTED APPLICANTS
DON’T FARE WELL
Barely half have any
earnings
53% of rejected male applicants age 45 to 64 (vs.
about 20% of accepted applicants) had any earnings
two years after application. Compare to 82% of a
control group of non-applicants (with similar
demographic characteristics and past work history)
who had earnings.
Two years after
application, 43% of
rejected applicants had
earnings equivalent to 3
months out of the year at
minimum wage
In contrast, 79% of non-applicants had at least that
level of earnings.
For those with earnings,
median amounts are
quite low
Among rejected applicants who worked, median
annual earnings (in 2000 dollars) were only $10,000,
just slightly above the poverty line. Compare to
median earnings of $35,000 among non-applicants.

7. SSDI IS NOT A
WORK DISINCENTIVE
• Just over 8 in 10 report biggest barrier to employment
was their own disability (80.5 percent)
• More than 9 in 10 people surveyed indicated receipt of
public income support benefits had NO effect on their
work activity
• In fact, 92.5 percent of those who received financial
assistance within the past year reported that “the
program(s) they used did not cause them to work
less than they otherwise would have.”
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, News Release, PERSONS WITH A DISABILITY:
BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT,TYPES OF ASSISTANCE, AND OTHER LABOR-RELATED ISSUES —MAY 2012,”
April 24, 2013; available at http://bls.gov/news.release/pdf/dissup.pdf

8. • START YEARS
BEFORE
APPLICATION
FOR BENEFITS
• EARNINGS
DETERIORATE
SEVERAL YEARS
BEFORE
APPLICATION
NEED FOR EARLY
INTERVENTION

9. SUSTAINABILITY AND
AFFORDABILITY
A MATTER OF PRIORITIES
• Americans support Social Security and don’t mind
paying for it
• Given a choice, they would rather pay more than
see benefits cut
• Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities supports
revenue only options
• Benefits already modest
• Any cuts will cause more hardship and more poverty

10. SOCIAL SECURITY
WHAT AMERICANS WANT
ELIMINATE
CAP
Gradually, over 10 years, eliminate cap on earnings taxed for
Social Security.
INCREASE
TAX RATE
Gradually, over 20 years, raise Social Security tax that workers
and employers each pay from 6.2% of earnings to 7.2%. The
increase would be so gradual that someone earning $50,000 a
year would pay about 50 cents a week more each year.
INCREASE
COLA
Increase Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to
more accurately reflect inflation actually experienced by seniors,
who typically pay more out-of-pocket for medical care than other
households.
RAISE
MINIMUM
BENEFIT
Raise Social Security’s minimum benefit so that a worker who
pays into Social Security for 30 years can retire at 62 or later and
have benefits above the federal poverty line ($10,788 for one
person aged 65 or older in 2011).
Source: Jasmine V. Tucker, Virginia P. Reno, Thomas N. Bethell, Strengthening Social Security: What Do Americans Want?, National
Academy of Social Insurance, January 2013, http://www.nasi.org/research/2013/report-strengthening-social-security-what-do-americans-want

11. DOES SSDI NEED
REFORM?
SSDI is functioning as it should – providing vital wage
replacement to millions of people with disabilities and
their families who need it.
More must be done to
• Help people who acquire disabilities stay at work if they
can;
• Provide support and services to SSDI beneficiaries with
work capacity to obtain and maintain employment;
But this is not, and should not be, the role of SSDI
program

12. PRINCIPLES FOR
REFORM
Any reform should preserve the structure of the SSDI
program, including the definition of disability
Efforts to increase employment opportunities and
improve employment outcomes for Social Security
disability beneficiaries should not be achieved through
• Any tightening of eligibility criteria for cash benefits
• Narrowing of health care benefits
• Removing the entitlement to benefits, OR
• Devolving responsibility to the states

13. MORE PRINCIPLES FOR
REFORM
SSDI benefit receipt should not be time limited
Work activities and work preparation activities, should
be voluntary for SSDI beneficiaries
Social Security Administration should be given
adequate administrative resources to
• Perform disability determinations in a timely manner
• Perform program integrity functions
- Continuing disability reviews
- Prevent overpayments

14. It started with a safety net. Founded in 1992 to educate stakeholders about the key role
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid play in the lives of persons with disabilities and older
adults, today we advance health and economic security, especially for vulnerable
populations.
HEALTH & DISABILITY ADVOCATES