Politicians and TV news people love to shock the American public with statements and stories about how the disability program is out of control. That’s why there won’t be any money for disability insurance by 2016, they say, and it sounds pretty convincing. After all, our government leaders wouldn’t let us get so close to the edge of not having money as part of a plan, would they? This lack of funding has to be a surprise, right?
Actually, it is.
Disability insurance running out of money’s something that happens every once in a while, and lawmakers always find the funding somewhere. The last time this happened was in 1994. And how long did those lawmakers expect the money to last? You guessed it – until 2016. Running out of DI money was part of the plan.
Where Has the Money Gone?
Despite the attempts of people to make it look like something shady is going on with disability insurance to explain why the money is about to run out, those in power know the real reasons, and they’ve known them all along. It comes down to demographics.
Baby Boomers are aging. As people get older, more things go wrong with them physically. It’s as simple as that. And we’re right in the middle of having an unprecedented number of people reach their prime disability years because Baby Boomers are retiring.
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More women qualify. Generally speaking, people don’t qualify for disability benefits unless they’ve worked for a significant portion of their adult lives. A few generations ago, most women didn’t meet the criteria even if they were disabled, but since then the number of women in the workforce has gone up exponentially, and they can now get benefits.
People don’t get full Social Security until later. The age at which people receive full Social Security benefits used to be 65. Today, it’s 66. That might not seem like much of a difference, but in 2011 there were 400,000 65-year-olds getting disability. Under the old rules, they would have been getting Social Security instead.
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Misinformation like this is why it’s good to work with a Social Security Disability attorney if you’re thinking about applying for disability. You can also get a great overview of the entire process by reading our free eBook on disability and stay up-to-date with the latest goings-on by following this blog.
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