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A Framework for Evaluating the Adequacy of Disability Benefit Programs and its Application to the U.S. Social Security Disability Programs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

Zachary A. Morris Open the ORCID record for Zachary A. Morris [Opens in a new window]
Zachary A. Morris*
Affiliation:
Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare; Health Sciences Center Level 2, Room 093, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
*
Corresponding author, email: Zachary.Morris@stonybrook.edu
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Abstract

The degree to which disability benefit programs provide an adequate standard of living to those with work-limiting disabilities has long been overlooked in social policy research. This paper presents a framework for assessing disability-related decommodification and then applies that framework to an analysis of the Social Security Disability (SSD) programs in the United States. The paper draws on survey data from the Health and Retirement Study linked to administrative records from the Social Security Administration, and further compares the U.S. estimates to those from 27 other countries. The results indicate that more than 50 percent of older adults of working-age with work-disabilities in the U.S. do not receive SSD benefits, though rates of benefit receipt are higher than the average across other high-income countries. Those that receive SSD benefits, moreover, experience greater difficulty achieving an adequate standard of living, as measured by an index of financial security, than those with similar characteristics in the U.S. who do not receive disability benefits. The paper thus provides a framework for future policy research on benefit adequacy, while evaluating the availability and generosity of disability benefits in the U.S.

Keywords

social security disability insurancesupplemental security incomedisability benefitswork-disabilitywelfare statedisability policy
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , First View , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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