We continue to hear about the increase in the number of people in America who are collecting Social Security disability benefits. The Republicans like to highlight this fact as they claim there is rampant corruption and fraud within the system and that too many people are collecting disability checks that shouldn’t be.
Now we have confirmation that in 2014 the number of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) payments decreased for the first time in 2014. In addition to this, the number of Social Security disability applications dropped by 14 percent since 2010.
I guess lazy people collecting Social Security disability benefits is not the epidemic the Republicans would like people to believe. So now that the number of applicants are decreasing and the number of people receiving disability benefits has reduced we may actually have a real chance for our leaders to have substantial talks about how to fund Social Security’s disability and retirement trust funds. These two programs are both rapidly running out of funding and need a boost to sustain both programs for years to come.
President Barack Obama and leading Democrats in office have suggested a quick fix to the prospect of the SSDI program being depleted by 2016. This quick fix would involve transferring money from the Social Security Retirement trust fund to the disability trust fund. This type of action has taken place many times over the years, but all of a sudden the Republicans do not want to take any money from the retirement trust fund because it too faces a shortfall within the next 20 years.
One factor that may change the minds of our leaders in Washington D.C. is that the Baby Boom Generation are beginning to age out of the disability program and into the retirement program, which are two different trust funds. If this trend continues, there may be more concern about the retirement trust fund than the disability trust fund.
To learn more about the future of these two programs click here.
