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Selected Data from Social Security's Disability Program

Graphs:
Applications and awards
Number of beneficiaries
Average monthly benefit
The following table presents unedited data (including corrections, if any) on disabled worker beneficiaries paid from Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust Fund. In particular, unedited award data may contain duplicate cases.

Disabled worker beneficiary statistics by calendar year, quarter, and month
  Awards 2 In current payment status Terminations 3
Time period Number
of appli-
cations 1
Number Increase
over prior
period
Percent
of appli-
cations
Number
at end
of period
Increase
over prior
period
Number Increase
over prior
period
Termi-
nation
rate
by calendar year—
1993 ..... 1,425,805 635,238 -0.22% 44.55% 3,725,966 7.45% 373,605 3.03% 9.74%
1994 ..... 1,443,803 631,870 -0.53% 43.76% 3,962,954 6.36% 387,673 3.77% 9.47%
1995 ..... 1,338,137 645,832 2.21% 48.26% 4,185,263 5.61% 410,299 5.84% 9.44%
1996 ..... 1,279,228 624,335 -3.33% 48.81% 4,385,623 4.79% 409,259 -0.25% 8.95%
1997 ..... 1,180,235 587,417 -5.91% 49.77% 4,508,134 2.79% 463,257 13.19% 9.72%
1998 ..... 1,169,255 608,131 3.53% 52.01% 4,698,319 4.22% 409,833 -11.53% 8.36%
1999 ..... 1,200,087 620,488 2.03% 51.70% 4,879,455 3.86% 434,489 6.02% 8.51%
2000 ..... 1,330,558 621,650 0.19% 46.72% 5,042,334 3.34% 461,626 6.25% 8.72%
2001 ..... 1,498,559 691,309 11.21% 46.13% 5,274,183 4.60% 456,258 -1.16% 8.31%
2002 ..... 1,682,454 750,464 8.56% 44.61% 5,543,981 5.12% 479,606 5.12% 8.34%
2003 ..... 1,895,521 777,905 3.66% 41.04% 5,873,673 5.95% 450,720 -6.02% 7.46%
2004 ..... 2,137,531 797,226 2.48% 37.30% 6,201,362 5.58% 466,332 3.46% 7.32%
2005 ..... 2,122,109 832,201 4.39% 39.22% 6,524,582 5.21% 494,592 6.06% 7.36%
2006 ..... 2,134,088 812,596 -2.36% 38.08% 6,811,679 4.40% 513,292 3.78% 7.28%
2007 ..... 2,190,196 823,106 1.29% 37.58% 7,101,355 4.25% 525,012 2.28% 7.14%
by quarter
2004 Q3 576,203 183,998 -17.34% 31.93% 6,131,666 1.14% 113,484 -3.24% 1.81%
2004 Q4 517,481 199,838 8.61% 38.62% 6,201,362 1.14% 129,228 13.87% 2.04%
2005 Q1 522,708 208,362 4.27% 39.86% 6,275,996 1.20% 132,286 2.37% 2.06%
2005 Q2 544,334 215,962 3.65% 39.67% 6,392,926 1.86% 94,524 -28.55% 1.46%
2005 Q3 572,596 213,980 -0.92% 37.37% 6,469,510 1.20% 132,954 40.66% 2.01%
2005 Q4 482,471 193,897 -9.39% 40.19% 6,524,582 0.85% 134,828 1.41% 2.02%
2006 Q1 528,971 189,459 -2.29% 35.82% 6,564,856 0.62% 142,088 5.38% 2.11%
2006 Q2 558,047 205,824 8.64% 36.88% 6,630,030 0.99% 138,843 -2.28% 2.04%
2006 Q3 551,822 219,774 6.78% 39.83% 6,750,283 1.81% 97,124 -30.05% 1.41%
2006 Q4 495,248 197,539 -10.12% 39.89% 6,811,679 0.91% 135,237 39.24% 1.94%
2007 Q1 534,615 192,594 -2.50% 36.02% 6,858,928 0.69% 142,571 5.42% 2.03%
2007 Q2 569,834 213,229 10.71% 37.42% 6,923,999 0.95% 145,661 2.17% 2.05%
2007 Q3 569,178 209,495 -1.75% 36.81% 7,011,882 1.27% 119,342 -18.07% 1.67%
2007 Q4 516,569 207,788 -0.81% 40.22% 7,101,355 1.28% 117,438 -1.60% 1.62%
2008 Q1 563,769 211,281 1.68% 37.48% 7,161,867 0.85% 149,817 27.57% 2.04%
2008 Q2 591,196 225,678 6.81% 38.17% 7,229,499 0.94% 156,105 4.20% 2.10%
by month
2007 Jun 214,453 72,088 6.70% 33.61% 6,923,999 0.33% 48,046 1.71% 0.68%
2007 Jul 167,620 70,775 -1.82% 42.22% 6,946,947 0.33% 47,212 -1.74% 0.67%
2007 Aug 227,074 66,583 -5.92% 29.32% 6,966,066 0.28% 46,316 -1.90% 0.65%
2007 Sep 174,484 72,137 8.34% 41.34% 7,011,882 0.66% 25,814 -44.27% 0.36%
2007 Oct 171,361 70,747 -1.93% 41.29% 7,058,057 0.66% 24,326 -5.76% 0.34%
2007 Nov 197,992 78,385 10.80% 39.59% 7,078,017 0.28% 56,876 133.81% 0.79%
2007 Dec 147,216 58,656 -25.17% 39.84% 7,101,355 0.33% 36,236 -36.29% 0.50%
2008 Jan 157,837 62,522 6.59% 39.61% 7,114,753 0.19% 48,544 33.97% 0.67%
2008 Feb 221,327 70,348 12.52% 31.78% 7,136,511 0.31% 48,049 -1.02% 0.66%
2008 Mar 184,605 78,411 11.46% 42.48% 7,161,867 0.36% 53,224 10.77% 0.73%
2008 Apr 188,185 75,168 -4.14% 39.94% 7,186,478 0.34% 49,799 -6.44% 0.68%
2008 May 218,667 74,137 -1.37% 33.90% 7,208,944 0.31% 50,861 2.13% 0.69%
2008 Jun 184,344 76,373 3.02% 41.43% 7,229,499 0.29% 55,445 9.01% 0.75%
2008 Jul 173,991 69,962 -8.39% 40.21% 7,247,428 0.25% 52,129 -5.98% 0.70%
2008 Aug 235,204 80,137 14.54% 34.07% 7,272,382 0.34% 54,682 4.90% 0.74%
1. The number of applications is for disabled-worker benefits only and, as such, excludes disabled child's and disabled widow(er)'s benefits. These applications ultimately result in either a denial or award of benefits. Applications include cases that are denied because the individual is not insured for disability benefits.

Because the application data are tabulated on a weekly basis, some months include 5 weeks of data while others include only 4 weeks. This weekly method of tabulation accounts for much of the month-to-month variation in the monthly application data. This method also occasionally causes quarterly and annual data to include an extra week of data.

2. Award data are unedited and may contain duplicates. Awards as a percentage of applications is a crude allowance rate. This rate expresses the number of awards in a given time period as a percentage of the number of applications in the same time period. Some of the awards in any time period, however, resulted from applications in previous time period(s).

3. The number of terminations is the number of beneficiaries who leave the disability rolls for any reason. The number is calculated on the basis of the change in the total number of entitled beneficiaries (those in current payment status plus those whose benefits are withheld for any reason) and the number of awards. The termination rate is the ratio of the terminations to the number of beneficiaries who could potentially leave the rolls. This latter number is approximated as the sum of the number entitled at the beginning of the time period plus half the number of awards in that period.

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