Tag: DI

prisoner hands on jail bars

In the three decades from 1980 to 2010, there was a steady rise in the number of men receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) benefits.  The number of beneficiaries peaked in 2012 and has declined significantly since the end of the Great Recession, tracking very closely the (pre-pandemic) fall in the national unemployment rate and…

Disabled young man with an artificial leg is working at the furn

In most disability insurance programs, beneficiaries lose some or all of their benefits if they earn above an earnings threshold.  While intended to screen out applicants with high remaining working capacity, earnings limits can also distort the labor supply of beneficiaries.  We develop a simple framework to evaluate this trade-off…