If you think someone who is denied Social Security disability benefits, something that happens to millions of people each year, will get the message sent from Social Security and return to the workforce, think again. It does not happen very often, indicating that these people are indeed disabled.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report earlier this month that shows that more than 59 percent of people who were denied Social Security disability benefits end up earning $0 in annual earnings.
When Social Security denies applicants for disability claims the agency’s representatives are indicating to those applicants that they are not disabled and can return to work. If they are able to work why do close to 60 percent of these people never return to work? Probably because they have impairments so severe they are unable to work.
The report did find that some people do return to work after being denied disability benefits, but they rarely earn enough money to support themselves. The report showed that of all the people who returned to work after being denied only 1.2 percent of these people were able to earn $40,000 a year. The largest portion of people who did go back to work earned less than $10,000 a year, which is under Social Security’s standard of being gainfully employed. If you total the number of people who either didn’t return to work or who earned less than $10,000 a year it equates to 86.4 percent of all the people who were denied Social Security benefits.
The motivation behind denying people disability benefits in an effort to return them to the workforce is simply not working. This is yet another indication that obtaining Social Security disability benefits in the United States is extremely difficult and that many disabled people are turned away.
