Although much of President Barack Obama’s $4 trillion budget for 2016 focuses on defense and domestic spending, the president has not forgotten about Social Security, and especially the agency’s disability program, which is projected to be unable to pay full disability payments to disabled workers as early as next year. Within the president’s budget are recommendations of how to fix the Social Security disability program.
The Shift
The president is recommending that the percentage of wages paid to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program be increased and the percentage of wages paid to the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program be decreased slightly. Currently workers pay 0.9 percent to the SSDI trust fund and 5.3 percent to OASI. The president’s budget estimates that a few tenths of a percentage change in what is paid into each fund could make them both solvent until 2033.
Keep More People In The Workforce
The president recommended more early intervention strategies to keep people in the workforce by providing incentives to employers to higher and maintain employees with disabilities. This would include providing supportive services for disabled workers inside the workplace.
Stay On Top Of Disability Reviews
An estimated $32 billion can be saved over the next 10 years, according to the president’s budget, by identifying more dedicated funding to Social Security’s continued disability review program that examines whether a disability recipient has improved medically enough to no longer be considered disabled. The agency has intended to do this every three to seven years for recipients, but funding has not provided the agency to meet these goals continuously.
To go deeper into the president’s 2016 budget, related to Social Security programs, and learn of more ways the president insists the Social Security disability program may be fixed click here.
