Gina Livermore

Long-Term Poverty and Disability Among Working-Age Adults

The authors use longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation spanning 1996 to 1999 to estimate the prevalence of short- and long-term poverty among working-age people with and without disabilities. Depending on the disability measure used, annual poverty rates are 2 to 5 times higher among people with disabilities compared to those without disabilities. The relative long-term poverty rates among those with disabilities are much higher than the relative short-term poverty rates. People with disabilities represented 47% of those in poverty in 1997 according to an annual measure of poverty and 65% of those in poverty according to a long-term measure. The reasons that disability receives little attention in the poverty literature may be that most statistics are based on short-term measures, which partially mask the strong relationship between long-term poverty and long-term disability, and outdated perceptions of the relationship between disability and the ability to work.

Health Care When Workers Need It Most Before and After Entry into the Social Security Disability Insurance Program

This study analyzed survey data on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries during the six-year window surrounding SSDI entitlement to illustrate changes in characteristics, insurance status, and health care access. We found that SSDI beneficiaries were less likely to be insured than the general working-age population, even three years before SSDI entitlement, and their uninsurance rates remained high until the third year after SSDI entitlement. Health care access problems were reported frequently during all periods surrounding SSDI entitlement, and poverty rates increased markedly post-entitlement. The findings suggest that there are significant gaps in the safety net for disabled workers before, during, and after the transition to SSDI.

Characteristics of adults with psychiatric disabilities participating in the federal disability programs.

Objective: We use nationally representative data on working-age recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to profile beneficiaries with psychiatric disabilities and compare them with beneficiaries eligible for SSDI and SSI on the basis of other health conditions. Method: Using data from 4 National Beneficiary Survey rounds, we conducted descriptive analyses of the personal and health characteristics and employment experiences of beneficiaries with and without psychiatric disabilities. Our sample includes 16,190 SSDI and SSI beneficiaries, of whom 6,447 have psychiatric disabilities. We conducted statistical tests of significance (&khgr;2 and t statistics) to assess the difference between beneficiaries with and without psychiatric disabilities. Results: Beneficiaries with psychiatric disabilities differ in many ways from other beneficiaries. They are significantly more likely to be younger than 55 years of age, female, have children, be unmarried, live alone, and be in poverty. Although a greater share report a desire to work, they are also more likely than their counterparts with other disabilities to report various employment barriers, including being discouraged by previous work attempts, the perception that others do not think they can work, a lack of transportation, and not wanting to lose cash or health insurance benefits. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: The findings suggest that beneficiaries with psychiatric disabilities face numerous significant employment obstacles that would need to be addressed for supported employment or similar approaches to be successful.