Published on: February 22, 2017
The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs help millions of people with disabilities in the USA provide for themselves and their families.
To help put the importance of these Social Security programs into perspective, here are a few numbers about disability benefits in the USA*:
10,237,204
This is the number of beneficiaries who were actively receiving payments from Social Security in December of 2015, as reported by the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Annual Statistical Report On the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2015.
Of these beneficiaries, 87% were disabled workers, 10.4% were disabled adult children, and 2.5% were disabled widows or widowers (the SSA rounded the percentages to the nearest tenth percentile).
60 to 64
This is the age range of the largest group of men and women who were receiving disability benefits in December 2015. When sorted by age, 28.8% of all men and 27.9% of all women receiving disability benefits were between the ages of 60 and 64.
Only 5.5% of men and 5.1% of women receiving disability pay were 65 or older. This sharp drop-off can be attributed to the fact that SSDI benefits automatically transition into retirement benefits at full retirement age.
$1,288.71
This is the average monthly disability benefit paid to disabled male workers in December 2015.
$1,035.67
This is the average monthly disability benefit paid to disabled female workers in December 2015.
The major reason for the discrepancy in the benefits paid to men and women is that these benefits are based on historical work earnings. Because men frequently have higher earnings than women in the same fields, they tend to have a higher monthly benefit.
929,031
This is the number of disabled workers who receive their benefits through a representative payee. This translates into roughly 10.4% of all disabled workers.
14,357 widows and widowers get their benefits through a representative payee—about 5.5% of the 259,331 widows and widowers receiving benefits in the month of December 2015.
73.6%
This is the percentage of the 1,068,443 adult children with disabilities who get their benefits through a representative payee—by far the highest percentage of any group.
The disproportionate rate of representative payees for adult disabled children can be largely attributed to the rate of severe developmental disabilities among this group. Of adult disabled children, 491,543 have intellectual disabilities—making them the largest group of adult disabled children.
$11.4 Billion
This is the amount of money paid to disabled beneficiaries in the month of December 2015 alone.
802,501
The number of disabled workers whose benefits were terminated in December of 2015.
31.7%
This is the percentage of disabled workers who had a diagnosis of disease of the musculoskeletal system—making it the most common diagnosis of disability in 2015.
These are just a few of the most important numbers associated with Social Security disability. To get more information about SSDI and SSI in Florida, contact an experienced Social Security disability advocate today!
*All numbers derived from the SSA's Annual Statistical Report On the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2015, Accessed January 26, 2017
