Work while receiving disability insurance benefits: additional findings from the New Beneficiary Followup Survey.

This article uses the New Beneficiary Followup Survey to describe the characteristics of beneficiaries who work after award of benefits and examines some aspects of the process by which work attempts come about. It also addresses questions of why beneficiaries work, how postentitlement jobs differ from those held prior to award of benefits, and the relationship between health status and work. Most of the beneficiaries who worked did so for reasons of financial need and worked without attributing this decision to an improvement in their health. Those most likely to work were young and had higher levels of schooling. The likelihood of working was the same across the range of disabling health conditions. Many different approaches led to job offers, and most beneficiaries who worked did not return to their previous employer. The first postentitlement job had less exertion, fewer hours, and lower pay than did the job held immediately prior to award. by Evan S. Schechter* Disability Insurance (DI) benefits are awarded to persons whose medically determinable physical or mental impairment is expected either to result in death or to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. While persons awarded benefits have impairments that often make it difficult for them to return to a level of substantial gainful activity (SGA), the Social Security Administration (SSA) has formally encouraged the return to work by establishing several work incentives. Among these incentives are the trial work period, extended Medicare eligibility, and limited funding of rehabilitation services for DI beneficiaries through State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies. Beneficiaries may make use of DI program work incentive provisions or they may seek and obtain employment after award without recourse to these program features. The decision to try to work, and the mechanisms of job search, job attainment, and sustained employment can follow channels that differ in their approach and rate of success. This article describes the characteristics of beneficiaries who work and some aspects of the process by which the return to work comes about. Beneficiaries who attempt some postentitlement work are likely to be of special interest in disability program analysis. Over the period beginning in 1989 and ending in 1994, the number of DI-disabled worker beneficiaries grew from about 2.8 million to nearly 4 million, a 40-percent increase. Benefit payments for the DI total program grew from about $23 billion in calendar year 1989 to nearly $38 billion in 1994, an increase of 65 percent. This program growth is the result not only of increases in the number of applications and awards, but also the declining rate of persons leaving the DI rolls due to either medical recovery or return to work. An earlier report cited an estimate that, "...fewer than 3 percent of all beneficiaries terminate from the DI program due to a work recovery."1 Clearly, identifying factors associated with work resumption and a description of job search mechanisms can directly inform SSA's work incentive policies. New Beneficiary Data System Sections of the New Beneficiary Data System (NBDS) provide information on postentitlement labor-force activities of disabled beneficiaries. Its initial phase was the New Beneficiary Survey (NBS) conducted in 1982. There were 5,188 persons sampled. These persons were awarded disability benefits from mid-1980 to mid-1981. In 1992, the New Beneficiary Followup (NBF) reinterviewed the NBS sample persons who were still living. To augment the total number of the disabled in the NBDS, an additional 3,000 beneficiaries (entitled in the 1980-81 period) whose administrative record indicated some postentitlement work experience were incorporated into the NBF. These persons comprise the disability addon sample. The population for this article consists of all DI beneficiaries who were first entitled between June 1980 and June 1981, were awarded benefits before May 1982, survived up to June 1992, and personally participated in their interviews. …