Abstract: High Functioning Disability Benefit Recipients: Characteristics, Employment Activities, and Barriers to Work (Society for Social Work and Research 20th Annual Conference - Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future)

Schedule:

Friday, January 15, 2016: 9:00 AM

Meeting Room Level-Meeting Room 6 (Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel)

* noted as presenting author

Zachary A. Morris, MSW, PhD student, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Stephanie Rennane, MA, PhD student, University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, MD

Background: A major priority of US disability policy is to support the efforts of disabled beneficiaries who want to work. To this end, the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs include a number of employment support initiatives. Despite these initiatives, however, less than 1% of beneficiaries leave the rolls for work each year (SSA, 2014). The President’s 2015 budget includes additional funding for demonstration projects that can support people with disabilities in their return to work. However, for these demonstration projects to be successful they will need to target beneficiaries who are able to work.

This paper provides a new perspective on the work-capacity of SSI and SSDI beneficiaries inspired by a new disability assessment process in the United Kingdom (UK) that evaluates the functional capacity, rather than the medical condition, of disability benefit recipients. The UK assessment is designed to identify beneficiaries capable of limited work-related activity and to target this group for return-to-work interventions.

Method:We adapt the descriptors used in the UK assessment to the US based on an equivalent set of questions related to functioning in the National Beneficiary Survey, a representative survey of SSI and SSDI beneficiaries. The descriptors in the UK were developed by vocational experts and are used to determine whether a person is capable of work-related activity. We use these descriptors as an instrument to identify high-functioning beneficiaries in the US.

Results: The analysis finds that, based on the UK descriptors, approximately 12-14% of US beneficiaries would be classified as high-functioning and are potentially capable of limited work-related activity. The paper further explores the characteristics of high-functioning beneficiaries and analyzes their employment activities and barriers to work.

Conclusion/Implications: The Disability Trust Fund supporting the SSDI program is projected to be exhausted in 2016. Policy makers are, therefore, increasingly interested in identifying ways to support beneficiaries in their return to work and thereby reduce the program rolls. This paper provides a novel understanding of the work-capacity of SSI and SSDI beneficiaries that should prove useful in the development of future return to work interventions.