Return-to-Work Outcomes Among Social Security Disability Insurance Program Beneficiaries

We followed a sample of working-age Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program beneficiaries for 5 years after their first benefit award to learn how certain factors are associated with achievement of four return-to-work milestones: enrollment for employment services provided by a state vocational rehabilitation agency or employment network, start of a trial work period (TWP), completion of TWP, and suspension or termination of benefits because of work. We found that younger beneficiaries are more likely than are older beneficiaries to achieve the milestones and that there exists substantial variation across impairment types. In addition, the probability of achieving the milestones is higher for individuals with more years of education, for Blacks, and for individuals residing in states with low unemployment rates at the time of award. It is lower for beneficiaries with a high DI benefit amount at award, an award decision made at a higher adjudicative level, and/or Supplemental Security Income or Medicare benefits at the time of DI award. We also found large variation in the relationships of both state of residence and award month to these return-to-work outcomes. We attribute these variations to unobserved factors at the state-level, policy changes, and trends in unobserved beneficiary characteristics.

Disability and Income

It has long been recognized that people with disabilities usually have less earnings than workers who do not have disabilities. The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)-911 data for 2012 were examined to determine the “true” income of workers with disabilities. The 2012 database included 579,312 cases closed during that year. The benefits and earnings of the whole data set and of 17 disability groups were examined. That is, the amount of earnings (at application for Vocational Rehabilitation [VR] services and at case closure) were combined with the amount of benefits to determine (a) whether total income increased from application for VR services to case closure, (b) the proportion of total income from benefits versus earnings, and (c) how total income for these consumers compared with the poverty level. Overall, those data revealed a 326% increase in total income from application to closure. At application, the proportion of total monthly income from earnings was 42%, whereas at closure, it had shifted to 83% of total income from earnings. Income relative to the poverty threshold was 57% for all clients at application, but had increased to 185% at closure. Results are also provided for each of the 17 disability groups.