SSDI Reform: Promoting Gainful Employment while Preserving Economic Security
The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program faces imminent insolvency. Annual expenditures totaled $143 billion in 2013, but program receipts amounted to $111 billion—a shortfall that is projected to continue indefinitely. According to the Social Security Trustees, the program’s trust fund will be fully depleted in 2016, compelling either a large benefit cut or a large tax hike—neither option being politically popular. Regardless of the program’s insolvency, SSDI creates substantial work disincentives, causing many with medical impairments who could work to withdraw from the labor force and apply for SSDI. That undesirable outcome arises from the complicated rules and procedures that SSDI uses to establish benefit eligibility. But rectifying SSDI’s processes is a monumental task, unlikely to be accomplished in the short term. Read more…
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