What is happening to Disability?

Disability Insurance was added to the Social Security system by the 1954 Amendments. It was strictly defined as a physical or mental impairment which would keep you from working for the rest of your life. As you can see by the following table, this definition has been enhanced and abused over the past 30 years as the percentage of our OASDI expenses paid out for disability has risen from 11% to 18%.

Income 125.2 22.7 321.6 57.3 518.1 83.9 642.2 102.6 698.8 106.3
Expense 142.1 18.0 302.9 45.5 337.5 61.4 461.6 94.5 603.8 132.3
Percentage of
 Total Expenses 		 89% 11% 87% 13% 85% 15% 83% 17% 82% 18%
Percentage of
Allocated Income		 113% 79% 94% 79% 65% 73% 72% 92% 86% 124%

* Taken from page 4 of the 1981 Actuarial Status Report used by congress as the basis for writing the 1983 reform legislation.

** 1996 to 2011 taken from the Social Security Annual Reports from 1997 to 2012.

The Percentage of Income line shows how the OASI budget was about to go broke in 1981, spending more than its tax income. The 1983 amendment has brought this problem temporarily into check for a short time. The 2011 numbers show that disability is now spending more than its allocated tax income, and the problem is getting worse.

Again, this site is not designed to talk about a fix for disability, but clearly the government has to do something to address the problem.

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