Social Security

Size and Scope of the Social Security Disability Program

• Disability benefits were paid to about 6 million people.
• Awards to disabled workers (610,700) represented about 90 percent of awards to all disabled beneficiaries (675,600).
• Payments to disabled workers and their dependents totaled about $55 billion.
• Benefits were terminated for about 460,000 disabled workers.

Profile of Disabled-Worker Beneficiaries

• Workers accounted for the largest share of disabled beneficiaries (85 percent).
• Average age was about 51.
• Men represented about 57 percent.
• Mental disorders was the diagnosis for a third.
• Average monthly benefit received was $786.
• Supplemental Security Income payments were another source of income for about 1 out of 7.

Since 1956, the Social Security program has provided cash benefits to people with disabilities. This annual report provides program and demographic information on the people who receive those benefits.

Our first edition presents a series of detailed tables on the three categories of beneficiaries—disabled workers, disabled widow(er)s, and disabled adult children. The basic topics covered are:

• Beneficiaries in current payment status
• Benefits awarded, withheld, and terminated
• Applications for benefits
• Geographic distributions
• Social Security beneficiaries who also receive Supplemental Security Income
• Income of disabled beneficiaries

In future editions, we plan to add more information about disabled-worker families, disabled beneficiaries who work, applications and their outcome, suspension and termination of benefits, reinstatement of benefits, workers' compensation and public disability benefit offset, and continuing disability reviews.

The Annual Statistical Supplement to the Social Security Bulletin was our first publication to present data on the disabled and it continues to do so. The historical statistics in this report came directly from that publication. Most of the other data are from the Social Security Administration's (SSA's) program records. Information on the income of disabled beneficiaries was obtained from the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The SIPP data were linked to information from SSA's December 1998 program records that was used to identify survey respondents who were disability beneficiaries.

Linda Martin, Cece Chin, and Carolyn A. Harrison compiled this report.

Susan Grad
Acting Associate Commissioner for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics
September 2001

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program provides benefits to retired workers and their dependent family members and to survivors of deceased workers. The Disability Insurance (DI) program provides benefits to disabled workers, their spouses, and children (whether or not disabled).

Benefits are paid from the OASI and DI trust funds. However, not all disabled beneficiaries are paid from the DI trust fund. All disabled widow(er)s' and most disabled adult children's benefits are paid from the OASI trust fund. Persons receiving disability benefits from either trust fund are referred to in this report as Social Security beneficiaries.

Numbers presented in our tables may differ slightly from other published statistics because we used 100 percent data files for most tables and used a 1 percent file for calendar year 2000 awards data.

All years are calendar years unless otherwise specified.