• 10
  • January
    2011

Former New York Times contributing columnist Peter Orszag makes a good point about applying for benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.

Orszag opines that the longer a person remains separated from the workforce, whether because of job loss or because of disability, the harder it will be for that person to return to work. Job skills "atrophy," he writes. This spells trouble for an economy that continues to be hampered by high unemployment. Orszag is probably right.

He goes on to write that "a drastic rise in applications for disability insurance suggests we may be headed for more long-lasting trouble," based on what Orszag characterizes as permanent dependence on the SSDI program once a person leaves the workforce because of disability.

Orszag says that people aren't less healthy -- it's the bad economy, which has caused people to apply for SSDI benefits when they otherwise would not have applied.

But as SSDI attorneys, we know that simply filling out an application for SSDI benefits is a long way from a guarantee that a person will actually receive those benefits. There is a process. First, more than half of all initial applicants are turned down, and then there is the level of reconsideration and the appeals process in escalating venues. The process, which disfavors applicants, isn't likely to change.

The rise in applications may indeed be a function of the bad economy, as Orszag writes, but the rise in applications in no way indicates that those who apply aren't genuinely disabled.

Source: Making Disability Work