Social Security disability benefits have been around for more than 60 years. The Social Security Act Amendments was passed in 1956. The program that was established pretty much mirrors what the program looks like today. Many people do not realize the goals of the program and the intentions of Congress when it was established. Here is some background on what the program was supposed to look like.
Federal disability benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program were first authorized by the Social Security Act Amendments of 1956.1 Congress debated the parameters of the DI program for more than 20 years prior to its enactment. From the beginning, however, the program under discussion had five basic tenets: (1) benefits would be for individuals with established work histories who were unable to continue working because of disability; (2) benefits would be earned under the program and paid for with dedicated contributions; (3) the definition of disability would be strict, requiring a medically determinable impairment that prevented substantial work and was expected to last indefinitely; (4) benefits would be modest, providing workers who became disabled with a basic level of financial security; and (5) return to work would be encouraged and supported through the provision of vocational services. The return-to-work aspects of the DI program have received considerable attention elsewhere, but less is known about how the other concepts have shaped the program and are reflected in its present form. This issue paper uses Social Security Administration (SSA) data on the current beneficiary population to examine how the first four founding principles are realized in the DI program as it exists today, nearly 60 years later.
The Social Security DI program was designed to provide modest federal benefits to workers with established work histories who had paid into the program and subsequently became totally disabled and unable to support themselves through work. Current data on the DI disabled-worker beneficiary population indicate that the program hews closely to this intent. Beneficiaries generally had long work histories before becoming eligible for DI. Most beneficiaries not only met the minimum insured-status requirements, but handily exceeded them, often earning the maximum possible work credits in all (or nearly all) years between age 21 and DI eligibility. Their patterns of pre-disability employment by industry were much like those of non-disabled workers, and prior to starting DI benefits; they had achieved adjusted earnings in their top 5 earnings years that, on average, were comparable to the 2014 earnings of non-disabled workers.
As the DI program’s designers intended, most disabled-worker beneficiaries are older; the majority of them are aged 50 or older when they start receiving benefits. The program’s strict eligibility standards are reflected in the high mortality rate among beneficiaries within 5 years of starting benefits. Its goal of providing only the most basic of benefits is reflected in the fact that the average benefit level remains less than one-third of the national AWI and only slightly above the federal poverty line.
Although the Social Security DI program has grown and adjusted to meet the demographic changes in the United States since 1956, it also succeeds in dutifully following the core tenets that Congress established for it nearly 60 years ago.
