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Disability Insurance about to run dry in the USA
(By – MARCUS ROBERTS)
Over at Forbes, Neil Howe has published a very interesting piece about the rise in the number of people in the USA on disability insurance (DI). It points to a number of factors including the cultural perception of work, the messy interplay between state and federal systems and of course our old favourite – an ageing population. DI benefits are available to those who are disabled and cannot perform the activities required of their job, cannot adjust to another type of job due to their condition and their disability will last at least a year or will result in death. Those who are eligible for DI receive a monthly DI cheque until they reach retirement age, die or recover. The benefit that they receive reflects their previous earnings. Over the last few decades the number of working age people claiming DI benefits has doubled from 2.3 percent in 1980 to 4.7 percent in 2011. By 2013, the number of workers claiming DI was about 9 million and the fund of $150 billion that DI benefits are drawn from is set to run out in 2016. So why has there been this growth in the number of workers claiming DI benefits?