[Mz Migraine]

Aug 21, 9:17 AM (ET)

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

Social Security disability on verge of insolvency


WASHINGTON (AP) - Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security's disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can't find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

to read more please go to:

http://apnews.myway.com//article/201...D9P8GAQ01.html

**this post has been edited as there is copyright attached to this article which means we can be in trouble if you copy it here in entirety
at the bottom of the article it says this
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[SSDIHelp]

I just wanted to respond to the article posted on SS running out of money. (Please see http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/0...the-year-2525/) which states SS has until the year 2525 until it runs out of money. That's 514 years from now. The dire predictions are because the government has heavily borrowed from SS funds.
The SSA has recently released the 2010 statitics.
Applications are up 5% from last year (basically from an aging population which has been projected for years as baby boomers age). The average age is 52.7 years.
Acceptance and denial rates are about the same as last year, 35% accepted, 65% denied. And who says SSA doesn't have quotas? Wanna bet they track the acceptance rates by worker?
On the appeals side, the lasted data is 2009 which reports that average awards for all appeal levels is 34.5%. Techical denials were 38% and medical denials were 27% on the appeal level. A techicaal denial means that a person is not eligible or their is an error on the application. According to ultimate disability guide.com reconsideration(first appeal) approval rate is 13%, hearing level (second appeal) is 62% and appeals council is 26%. At the federal court level only 4% are approved.
One statistic that really concerns me are the reasons for acceptance. A whopping 46.9% were a combination of medical and vocational factors. In the 2010 application, the applicant is not given an ooportunity to explain how their disability effects their work activities and duties (vocational factors), 31.5& meet seveirty test and 6.9 equal severity test.
The awards for types of disabilities are as follows: musculoskeletal 32.5%, mental & mood disorders 32.3%. This is a change from the last time I looked when mental disabilities were in the lead with over 33%.
Another statistic that as a feminist still bothers me is the average monthly benefit amount difference between men and women. Men recieve an average of $!,291.90 while womwn only receive $971.80. This is further evidence that men still make more than women. Oddly, 11% more men receive disability benfits. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Hope some of you find these statistics interesting.
Respectfully, Trudi

[finz]

Trudi,

I took that as an arbitrary figure, not 2525 as a factual end of when SS runs out of money. I saw similar suggestions in a recent AARP aritcle on SS about some easy fixes.....seems like a no brainer to me, but who knows when politicians in charge will agree to make the NEEDED (IMHO) changes.

I think your posts mixes and matches SS and SSDI. Mz M's post was strictly about SSDI. I agree with the gist of her post, that the problems with SSDI will be harder to fix.

As an aside, about the men vs women aspect......it does show that men who collect made more while working than the women who collect. Is that for SSDI or SS ? Either way, I don't find that surprising. I do hope that we will see that change in coming years as more women who worked full time start collecting. Well, that sounds a little strange......obviously, I don't hope more women get disabled.....just saying that my rate would be close to my husband's rate IF he became disabled because I worked FT at a decently paying job for most of my life (I did cut back for a few years when my kids were younger). The previous generation of women frequently didn't work at all during their kids' upbringing, so obviously their lifetime average earnings would be much less than their spouses.

I have seen the more men than women collect stat before. I wonder if that is impacted by the fact that most veterans are men......if the US military says you are disabled it should be difficult for another branch of the government to claim that you are not. Many men may also have had more physically demanding jobs that contributed to their disability.

[carlacanel]

"Social Security is for people with substantial work histories, and monthly disability payments average $927. Supplemental Security Income does not require a work history but it has strict limits on income and assets. Monthly SSI payments average $500."

I paid into Social Security for 32 years before I became disabled and then there are people who have never worked drawing out of the same account and there is no money. How did the well go dry?

[SSDIHelp]

[QUOTE=finz;798606]

"I think your posts mixes and matches SS and SSDI. Mz M's post was strictly about SSDI. I agree with the gist of her post, that the problems with SSDI will be harder to fix."

Actually, all the statistics are for only disabled workers. There are no stats that reflect standard social security retirment benefits.
Trudi

[Babyboomer15]

Originally Posted by carlacanel

"Social Security is for people with substantial work histories, and monthly disability payments average $927. Supplemental Security Income does not require a work history but it has strict limits on income and assets. Monthly SSI payments average $500."

I paid into Social Security for 32 years before I became disabled and then there are people who have never worked drawing out of the same account and there is no money. How did the well go dry?

The government borrowed the money to spend on all the unnecessary wars that are going on.

[EducatedAsylum]

You can clearly see one of the reasons for the rise in applications... People can't find jobs, and the unemployment checks only last for a period of time. Then it becomes being thrown out on to the streets, which is where you see a rise of sudden disabilities

[GaryA]

Originally Posted by carlacanel

"Social Security is for people with substantial work histories, and monthly disability payments average $927. Supplemental Security Income does not require a work history but it has strict limits on income and assets. Monthly SSI payments average $500."

I paid into Social Security for 32 years before I became disabled and then there are people who have never worked drawing out of the same account and there is no money. How did the well go dry?

It's a safety net. As such, if a person becomes disabled after working at a Waffle House for a few weeks, he/she is still entitled to receive disability benefits--as they should be. It was never and hope never will be set up as "individual savings accounts" *admin edit*

The fix is simple. If 90% of the population must pay into the system out of every dollar they ear, the rich should pay a percentage out of every dime of income--whether from investments or from salary. Do that, the system would be flush forever.

[finz]

[QUOTE=SSDIHelp;798735]

Originally Posted by finz

"I think your posts mixes and matches SS and SSDI. Mz M's post was strictly about SSDI. I agree with the gist of her post, that the problems with SSDI will be harder to fix."

Actually, all the statistics are for only disabled workers. There are no stats that reflect standard social security retirment benefits.
Trudi

The article you linked to was specifically about SS, not SSDI

[finz]

Originally Posted by carlacanel

"Social Security is for people with substantial work histories, and monthly disability payments average $927. Supplemental Security Income does not require a work history but it has strict limits on income and assets. Monthly SSI payments average $500."

I paid into Social Security for 32 years before I became disabled and then there are people who have never worked drawing out of the same account and there is no money. How did the well go dry?

**********************************************

If you worked for 32 years before becoming disabled you should be collecting SSDI, with a possible SSI add on if your income from SSDI was very low.

People who have never worked would just be getting SSI.....umless they became disabled before they were adults then they could qualify for SSDI under their parent's work history.

Do you know of specific examples of someone on SSI making the same amount as you ?

The well isn't dry.....yet ! The problem is the system is designed to have current workers support those who can't work (due to disability or age, including SSDI and SS). It's all predictable as far as SS and works if the population stays the same. SS is in trouble because current generations have less kids on average than in the past AND because we are living longer. SSDI is in trouble because a larger segment of the population is disabled (or claiming to be).

I agree with Gary that all worker's should pay SS on ALL wages, not just up to the current cap of $106K a year (that may not be current, but it's close).....we just have to remember those people will then be eligible for much higher benefits when they are disabled or retire.

I also think bumping the retirement age up again is reasonable.

I also believe there should be changes to benefits for divorced spouses. I believe the system was designed to accommodate the stay at home spouse of a wage earner if they divorce and that spouse doesn't have the time to build up their own work history. I think if you had a very lengthy marriage that is very reasonable. I think it's crazy that there could be a high earning person with 5 or 6 marriages lasting 10 years and all of those ex's get to collect on that one wage earner's benefit.....even if they remarry.

Critics could say I should have no say because none of the changes I just suggested would affect me personally All of the changes that are possible to help keep SS and SSDI solvent will adversely affect some groups.....and I understand that they will most likely be resentful about that.

Singling out one group, the extremely wealthy......I don't think there are many people out there like Warren Buffett who are saying, "You know what, I should be taxed more."