For most people who haven't made an SSDI or SSI claim, "Social Security" just means the retirement program. They hear from time to time that the Social Security trust fund is in trouble, but it may not have much of an impact on their day-to-day lives. Either they're about to retire and expect Social Security retirement benefits to be there for them, or they're far from retirement and have time to make contingency plans.

The same cannot be said for people with disabilities. When you're disabled and can't work, you generally don't have time to make contingency plans. A career-ending disability can happen to anyone -- whether that means an injury that keeps you from performing physical work, a disease that makes it hard to breathe, blindness, or a brain injury that takes away hard-earned job skills.

For people who qualify for SSDI or SSI, it's much more than a political concern whether Social Security is solvent -- it's a question of having a safe home and food on the table.

That's why when the Social Security Administration released its most recent financial data, they way they presented that data was somewhat troubling.

A recent editorial in the Des Moines Register pointed out how common it is for people to talk about Social Security as if it's a single program, but it can be misleading. The Social Security retirement program and the programs for disabilities are funded by two separate trust funds, and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund is in much worse financial shape. The SSA's financial report, which essentially treats the two funds as if they were a single account, tends to disguise that fact.

Evaluated on its own, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund is expected to begin operating in the red by early 2013. That is to say, annual expenditures for SSI and SSDI will start to exceed the fund's assets. By 2018, the Social Security disability programs are projected to be out of money.

Will Social Security Disability Be There If You Become Disabled?

Most people believe that the biggest challenge to Social Security's solvency is that the Baby Boom generation is about to retire, which will mean that more people will be collecting retirement benefits than are paying into the system via payroll taxes.

That's true, but it's only part of the issue. If that were the sum of the problem, the necessary policy choices might not be popular, but they would be relatively straightforward. We could cut the benefits, change the eligibility requirements or raise payroll taxes. It's just a matter of priorities.

Between 1970 and today, the number of people receiving Social Security disability benefits has grown to 9.7 million. The Congressional Budget Office projects that number to grow to 11.4 million by 2015.

If the Social Security disability program becomes insolvent, Congress will have to make those policy choices. As it does so, however, it's essential to remember this: for most people, Social Security disability is not part of an overall disability plan. It is their sole source of income.

As the Des Moines Register points out: "Unlike retirement, many of us don't 'save' for a cancer diagnosis or a bad fall."

Social Security disability is an insurance program, and any American could need it at any time. It is one of our most fundamental safety nets, and it needs to be solvent.

Source:

"Protect safety net for disabled workers" (Des Moines Register editorial, August 30, 2010)