Disability Income Policy in 2001—Excerpts from Balancing Security & Opportunity: The Challenge of Disability Income

In 1996, the Academy’s Disability Policy Panel released a landmark study of disability income policy, Balancing Security and Opportunity: The Challenge of Disability Income Policy.

Key findings of that report useful to the current policy debate are excerpted in the attached .pdf file, including:

• Stories from people receiving disability benefits
• How does disability income policy fit into the broader disability policy picture?
• Does the Social Security definition of work disability fit the program’s purpose?
• How are disability claims decided?
• Why do the rolls grow and shrink?
• Are DI benefits a deterrent to work?
• Does the Social Security Administration have adequate funding to administer the program with fairness and integrity?
• What is the Academy’s Disability Policy Panel?