Posted on 08/30/2013 5:45:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week’s charts show total receipts, expenditures, and assets left in the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. Data from the 2013 Trustees Report show that the disability fund is currently predicted to be three years from insolvency. Under more pessimistic assumptions, the insolvency date is pushed up to 2015. The fact that the DI trust fund is not currently depleted shouldn’t mislead us into thinking we have until 2016 to deal with the shortfalls.
Spending on Social Security has more than doubled in the past decade, and DI now accounts for almost 20 percent of Social Security’s budget, up from 10 percent in 1988. The trust fund has been operating under deficits since 2008, as shown by the decline in the trust fund (green bars) and ever-growing gap between the payments (red line) and receipts (blue line). Despite these trends, disability insurance programs are often left out of the social safety net discussion.
The second chart shows the average monthly benefit workers receive. About 14 million Americans receive a disability check from the government every month. The average monthly payment to a disability beneficiary was $1,202 in July—a number that has more than doubled since 1985. While benefit payments won’t necessarily be stopped if the trust fund runs dry, they will certainly have to be cut by 20 to 30 percent.
As a result, disabled Americans are waiting longer and longer before receiving the benefits they are entitled to. Many now wait as long as two years before having their applications finalized. This situation must change; it’s untenable for both those who rely on the program and those who pay for it.
The figures in chart 2 represent the average benefit amount for benefits awarded in each month in current dollars.
Millions of freeloaders will have to find another teat to suck dry.
No problem, just print more money by sending over a few more rheems of paper to the Fed.
But, But. But, the Commiecrats say that it’s solvent for decades.
It has a separate trust fund from social security?
Another obama administration tactic to dissolve the economy, congress will not address abuses until after the fact, if ever, “We The People” are losing this war liberals waged against us.
In all seriousness liberalism, is our worst enemy, no one in power has the guts to call them out, soon we will be doomed, there is no time left to deal with this (the enemy within), liberalism must be destroyed now, we have coddled them far too long.
there are many receiving disability income who are not entitled to it because of crooked doctors who sign off on the application. There once was a need to be be examined by SS doctor as well as outside doctor. I understand that only one signature is needed now and other than a typical governmental wait, it is a slam dunk. We need a program to weed out the non-qualified and prosecute these fraudulent doctors.
Also, number of so-called disabilities need to be limited. For instances alcoholics, children on these attention deficit drugs, etc., are all eligible.
This program is out of control.
The Disability part is one part of SS I’d like to see abolished.
Obama cut payments into the system in 2008
You don’t OWE any less, he just cut the amount being taken from your check
Anyone else notice their tax ‘refund’ was a bit small? (or you OWED money for the first time ever?)
Vote buying money drying up???
How ya think these 14 million cast their vote?
I have not checked recently but the last time I read the rules on disability from the social security website it clearly said that drug or alcohol addiction was an automatic disqualifier. I have had people tell me years ago that the quickest way to get disability was to claim drug addiction but the law said exactly the opposite.
I can’t speak for the last five years but a few years ago some people were being denied benefits in my area even though they had multiple conditions which the social security administration lists as “automatic qualifiers”. My wife was one, the administrative court judge simply ruled that her doctors and I mean multiple doctors were “not credible.” It took twelve years of appeals to get approved and then she only got back pay for five years. It used to be very difficult to get approval in this area for disability. Doctors would refuse to certify someone as ready to resume work so they would apply for disability and social security would then turn them down. They could not get a normal job because companies didn’t want them on their insurance rolls with multiple chronic conditions. I understand that things may be looser under Obama but it has not always been easy to get approval by any means.
Some people used to get social security disability only because they had private disability insurance. I had a cousin who died at 59 after a high paid career as a welder for a utility company. He went to the company doctor for his annual checkup at age 50 and the doctor told him he had worked his last day. He was placed on disability and was astounded at the amount of his check from the company’s disability insurance and equally astounded when the insurance company applied on his behalf for social security disability and got approval rapidly. They did that because their policy said they would pay a certain amount MINUS any benefits fom social security. Had he been an average Joe with no other coverage he might well have died before gaining approval for disability.
“Printing” isn’t even necessary anymore. Just add some entries in a database and voila - money is created.
The only thing that could ‘solve’ it is an all-out civil war....us against them. And we have just as good a chance of losing that war and ending up in a total dictatorship with totalitarian control run by leftists if that happened. We’re pretty much screwed either way.
We did let it go on, apathetically, for far too long for it to be fixed NOW.
SSDI - the new retirement program.
RE: I have not checked recently but the last time I read the rules on disability from the social security website it clearly said that drug or alcohol addiction was an automatic disqualifier. I have had people tell me years ago that the quickest way to get disability was to claim drug addiction but the law said exactly the opposite.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SOURCE:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-94-128/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-94-128.htm
EXCERPT:
The number of addicts receiving disability benefits has grown
substantially during the last 5 years—from fewer than 100,000 to about
250,000 today. The annual cost of providing benefits to addicts is about
$1.4 billion. The vast majority of addicts receiving disability
benefits are either not in treatment or their treatment status is
unknown. About 100,000 addicts have not been assigned a third-party or
representative payee to manage their benefits. Consequently, the Social
Security Administration (SSA) has no guarantee that these persons are
not using their benefit checks to buy drugs or alcohol. Even in cases
when payees have been assigned, their control over benefit payments is
questionable; most of these payees are friends or relatives. Because
addicts can abuse, threaten, and pressure their payees, GAO believes
that organizations would make better payees for addicts than friends or
relatives. SSA needs to ensure that all disability benefit recipients
are in treatment and that all addicts have a third-party or
representative payee. Also, Congress needs to consider expanding the
treatment requirement to all addicts and restructuring the program to
improve the payoff from treatment.
Yes. The combined rate paid by employers and workers is 12.4%. The disability program’s rate is 1.8%, while the retirement system’s rate is 10.6%.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
