Newswise — Richard Burkhauser, professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University and co-author of the new book “The Declining Work and Welfare for People with Disabilities: What Went Wrong and a Strategy for Change,” offers ways to bend the future cost curve of the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI), whose trust fund is projected to be insolvent by 2018. He says: “The dramatic rise in the number of people coming onto the SSDI rolls is a policy-driven rather than a health-driven epidemic. SSDI was supposed to be a last resort system for those unable to work, but is increasingly becoming a long-term unemployment program for those who could work if given the proper incentives to do so. While the disability insurance program is very good at writing checks, it provides little help for people with disabilities who want to continue working. “The first thing public policy should provide for people who experience the onset of disability is help in continuing to work. One way to achieve this is by incentivizing their employers to provide accommodation and rehabilitation and hence slow their movement onto the long-term disability rolls. Experience rating the SSDI payroll tax would do this.” Burkhauser will speak during a live webcast at the Amercian Enterprise Insitute for Public Policy Research on Thursday, Sept. 22, from noon to 1:30 pm in Washington, D.C.
For more information or to watch the webcast:http://www.aei.org/event/100455
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