A recent study released by Social Security’s Office of Chief Actuary shows the importance of disability and survivor benefits from Social Security.
Most people probably don’t give disability benefits or survivor benefits a second thought because they don’t ponder the possibility that they will become disabled and unable to work, or envision the death of a family member, but the study showed these things happen to a significant sector of the society.
According to the report, 36 percent of males and 30 percent of females, who were born 20 years ago, will become disabled prior to reaching full retirement age. Percentages were also calculated for males and females born in 1966, who on average are about 52 right now. The percentage of females who will reach the full retirement age without becoming disabled remained at 70 percent, but the percentage of males who would become disabled prior to retirement age was 42 percent, some 6 percent higher than males born in 1998.
Regardless of percentages, disability benefits remain an important safety net when people are unable to work due to impairments, but so are survivor benefits. Survivor benefits are provided, when certain circumstances are met, to the spouse of a deceased individual and to the deceased individual’s minor children. According to Social Security, about 6 million individuals receive survivor’s benefits. The study showed that the need for survivor’s benefits will decrease somewhat after comparing people born in 1966 and projections for people born in 1998.
“The projected probabilities of death before [retirement age] have decreased between the 1966 and 1998 birth cohorts, reflecting in part the actual improvement in mortality,” the report said. Things are going in the right direction, where projections indicate less people will require survivor benefits in the future, but without this program millions of Americans would be unable to meet basic living needs if these benefits were not provided.
