Center for Economic & Policy Research: Disability Insurance Trust Fund Coffers Refill While Benefit Awards Plummet

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (TNSRes) -- The Center for Economic and Policy Research issued the following news release:

The Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program is in good shape with the date of the trust fund's depletion projected as 2057, according to the most recent Trustees' report. But that wasn't always the case.

The DI trust fund has made a striking revival since 2015 when it was just one year away from exhaustion. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) reports the revival of the trust fund corresponds with a striking decline in the approval rate for disability benefits and the related drop in applications.

The article, The Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund Bounces Back. Have Workers?, by Anais Goubert and Dean Baker, illustrates how disability insurance approval rates declined from almost 60 percent in 1999 to under 30 percent in 2018. The total number of applications trends downward in the last five years, as both approvals and denials fell.

"This decline in approval rates was likely a factor in the drop in applications," explains co-author and CEPR senior economist Dean Baker. "When workers came to think that it was less likely that an application would be approved, many may have decided that there was little point in applying for benefits."

It may be that the Social Security Administration is enforcing eligibility rules much more strictly than in the past, but individuals entitled to benefits may be suffering to improve the financial health of the Disability Insurance Fund.

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Report link: https://cepr.net/the-social-security-disability-insurance-trust-fund-bounces-back-have-workers/