Could State and Local DI Programs Shed Light on Trends in SSDI?

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, one out of every four young workers today will develop a work-limiting disability over the course of their career. For those unable to continue in the labor force, programs like Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) serve as a much-needed economic safety net. Despite broad agreement on this need, policymakers continue to vigorously debate the best way to design a DI program to protect individuals and families from loss of income while incentivizing work among those who are still able. This brief investigates whether researchers could turn to a unique population of workers Ð state and local government employees Ð to assess how DI program structure affects claiming and other outcomes. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section introduces a unique database of state and local DI programs that was developed for this analysis and will be made publicly available on the CenterÕs website in the fall of 2020. The second section explores the state and local DI landscape, with an eye toward variation in program structure that could be used to study how design choices affect outcomes. The third section offers suggestive evidence that eligibility rules, benefit levels, and employee occupation could all affect the DI claiming rate. The final section concludes that state and local DI programs offer a fruitful avenue for research.