This rapidly increasing trend seemed to start with Bush (though I don't have data going back before 2001). According to the CNSNews article below, under George Bush, terms one and two, the increases in Americans collecting disability insurance were 1,144,769 (23%) and 1,207,537 (19%). During Obama's first term, the increase was 1,385,418, or 19%. From Jan 2001 through Dec 2012, there's been a 74% increase in the numbers of people collecting SSDI.
However, the WSJ provided different numbers. According to the WSJ, "There now are 10.6 million Americans collecting disability, up from 7.2 million in 2002." That would be a 47% increase between 2002 and the end of 2011.
Trying to understand the discrepancy in the CNSNews and WSJ numbers, I visited the CBO website. Below is the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) infographic, which does not entirely sort out my confusion. The number on disability at the end of 2011, 8.3 million, is consistent with CNSNews numbers – 8.8 million at the end of 2012, up 6% from last year.
Current guess: the 8.8 million collecting at the end of 2012 are actually disabled workers. The WSJ number 10.6 million includes dependents of the disabled.
If you have any thoughts, please comment.
First Term: Americans Collecting Disability Increased 1,385,418—Now 1 for Each 13 Full-Time Workers:
(CNSNews.com) – During President Barack Obama’s first term, the number of Americans collecting federal disability insurance increased by 1,385,418 to a record 8,827,795. [19%]
As a result, there is now one person collecting disability in this county for every 13 people working full-time. Forty-two years ago, in December 1968, there were 51 people working full-time in this country for each person collecting disability.
In January 2009, the month Obama was inaugurated, there were 7,442,377 Americans collecting federal disability insurance, according to the Social Security Administration. By December 2012, the latest month reported, there were 8,827,795 collecting disability, an increase of 1,385,418. With 115,868,000 people working full-time in December, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was 1 person collecting disability for every 13 people working full-time.
In the comparable period of George W. Bush’s first term—January 2001 through December 2004—the number of people taking disability went from 5,052,895 to 6,197,664, an increase: 1,144,769 [23%].
Keep reading: First Term: Americans Collecting Disability Increased 1,385,418—Now 1 for Each 13 Full-Time Workers | CNS News.
The Social Security Disability Insurance Program – Infographic
The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program provided $119 billion in benefits to 8.3 million disabled workers in fiscal year 2011, accounting for nearly 18 percent of total Social Security spending. In addition, 2.0 million dependents of those workers received benefits in 2011. CBO projects that in 2022, the DI program will provide benefits totaling $204 billion to over 12.3 million disabled workers and their dependents.
