Recently, the Social Security Administration (SSA) started a national communications campaign to raise awareness of their Disability Insurance Benefit (DIB) program. This campaign is called the “Faces And Facts Of Disability.” As the title suggests, the campaign is focused on providing facts about the program as well as sharing personal stories from beneficiaries.
The campaign features a video that addresses some of the basic requirements of the DIB program. It also provides information on some common misconceptions about the program as well as interviews with a couple beneficiaries. Here are some interesting and startling facts from the video:
- More than one in four workers who are 20 years old and insured for DIB benefits will become disabled prior to retirement age;
- For people who start receiving DIB at the age of 55, one in five men and one in seven women will die within five years of the onset of their disability.
Some misconceptions that are addressed in the video:
- Some people believe the beneficiaries’ receive a lot of money from the SSA and are paid too much. The video states that in 2014, the average monthly check is only $1146. This is barely above the poverty level;
- Many people believe that there is a high rate of fraud with disability claims. The video states that the fraud incidence rate is a fraction of one percent.
Please click here to view the entire video.
The SSA has created a special webpage for the campaign which includes a message from the SSA commissioner, an online quiz about disability, facts related to the DIB program, personal stories, and more. To see the “Faces And Facts Of Disability” webpage click here.
