Black Workers Rely More on Organizational Disability – Center for Retirement Research

A small portion of the American workforce is on disability insurance – about 8 million – but the monthly cash payments are important to them because they can no longer work.

What’s striking in the new study — the first good picture of who’s getting the benefits — is that black Americans rely heavily on them. They have the highest participation rate, followed by Whites and then Hispanics, Native Americans and people of Asian descent.

Black people living with disabilities also tend to be less healthy, according to researchers at the University of Illinois and Cornell University.

They proposed two opposing interpretations of their findings. The high participation of non-Hispanic black workers may “indicate that [disability] The program is working as intended” for the group with poor health, they said.

But the fact that they are less healthy may also mean that they “don’t get access.” [disability] until their conditions are more advanced than other groups,” they said.

When people under the age of 65 are approved for disability benefits, they automatically enter Medicare two years later. This analysis finds racial disparities in program access over 25 years by combining Medicare and Social Security data with US Census reports. Medicare identifies race and ethnicity using administrative records and other data — such as languages ​​spoken — to determine, for example, which Blacks and Native Americans are more likely to identify as Hispanic.

The magnitude of the disparity is great. Black workers are twice as likely to enter the disability program as second-ranked Whites and up to five times more likely than Asians. Medicare spends an average of $20,000 a year on medical care for Blacks – or 40 percent more than it spends on their White and Asian counterparts.

Medicare spending on health care for Native Americans is in second place, indicating that they also have poorer health. In contrast, Asians, who are the most likely to enter the disability system, use the least medical care.

Reasons other than the nature of the disability itself can affect the decision to apply for benefits. This can also be examined from the perspective of race.

Another well-known factor is the recession. Claims and awards for disability benefits increase in economic downturns, much as they did after the Great Depression. But the researchers found that admission rates for Whites, Blacks, and Asians during the recession were more sensitive than admission rates for Native Americans and Hispanics.

Relaxation of the program rules at age 50 and again at age 55 also continues participation. For workers under the age of 50, the disability qualifying standard is that the disability prevents them from finding work. The relaxed rules for 50-somethings mean that it will be even more difficult for them to find work, and participation is increasing in these years across all races and ethnicities.

This nation is aging, and racial and ethnic demographics are changing. The researchers hope their new data will be useful to lawmakers as they consider how to improve the disability system for transgender Americans.

Reading this learn by Colleen Carey, Nolan Miller, and David Molitor, see “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in SSDI Access and Health.”

The research reported here was conducted in accordance with a grant from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium. The views and conclusions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of SSA or any agency of the Federal Government. Neither the United States government nor any of its agencies, nor any of its employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal responsibility or liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the contents of this report. Reference herein to any particular commercial product, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not imply endorsement, recommendation or favor by the United States Government or any agency thereof.