This brief discusses the characteristics of working-age individuals receiving Social Security disability benefits and describes their employment success. The findings suggest that beneficiaries fall into three broad groups based on work-related efforts and expectations. For 60 percent, gainful...

Although social security disability benefits can provide critical income support as well as job assistance and access to medical services for individuals who are homeless, the benefit application process can be challenging. Many homeless people have no consistent source of medical care, lack a...

This paper provides information on the services and supports used by workers with disabilities at risk of applying for disability insurance (DI) and helps build the evidence base for policies that enable workers with disabilities to avoid applying for DI and for the supports necessary to keep...

In this brief, we describe the employment and program participation patterns of people with disabilities before they apply for SSDI, adding to the existing literature by focusing on patterns as much as 42 months before application and including a range of programs. A better understanding of the...

This issues brief summarizes the Social Security Disability Insurance Program. Program eligibility and application, caseload growth, benefit amounts, and return-to-work incentives are discussed.

This brief details factors that help states and communities successfully implement the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) initiative, a program to improve access to disability benefits for people who are homeless.

This study describes the extent to which vocational rehabilitation (VR) applicants receive Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits before or after VR application. SSD entry varies with VR applicant characteristics; those with relatively high SSD entry include non-Hispanic whites, those not...

This paper provides new descriptive information on trends in the composition and outcomes of young (under age 40) Social Security Disability (SSD) beneficiaries first awarded benefits between 1996 and 2007, particularly differences between disabled workers and disabled adult children (DAC), and...

Profiles the efforts of four states—FL, OR, TN, and UT—to address welfare recipients' mental health conditions, which are often barriers to employment. Notes that these conditions, which occur at substantially higher rates in welfare recipients than in the general population, can...