The Washington Post recently ran an editorial responding to those who have read about the imminent crisis in funding for Social Security — and chosen to blame it on the disabled. But as the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives observed:
We all have a stake in seeing deserving people with disabilities get the benefits they need and have earned.
There are significant societal costs when claimants are improperly denied benefits. These costs include increased home foreclosures and evictions; homelessness; family dissolutions; bankruptcies; welfare payments; strains on Medicaid and other residual indigent health care systems from postponed care; human suffering when a claimant cannot obtain medical treatment; and sometimes even death.
Moreover, there are strains on the Social Security system that should not be blamed on disabled Americans who need support.
- The SSDI program provides income to nonelderly adults most of whom have worked in the past and have contributed to the fund-but are determined unable to work now because of a medical condition that is expected to last at least a year or to result in death.
- Many factors have increased the number of people receiving SSDI benefits: the aging Baby Boomers; increases in the number of women working; and increases in life expectancy, with more people surviving what once might have been fatal disabilities due to medical advancements.