2008 Annual Report of the SSI Program

 

 

E. INCENTIVES FOR WORK AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR REHABILITATION

1. Work Incentives

Since the beginning of the SSI program, a number of disabled or blind recipients have worked and received SSI payments. Initially, the program contained a basic earned income exclusion that recognized the additional costs associated with employment. In addition, the law contained a number of special income exclusions which were intended as work incentives. Among these provisions were the income exclusion for blind work expenses (BWE), plan to achieve self-support (PASS), and student earned income exclusion (SEIE).

In the 1980 amendments to the Social Security Act, Congress provided additional incentives to help SSI disabled recipients become self-supporting. These incentives included:

•	Providing for an earned income exclusion for impairment-related work expenses (IRWE);

•	Changing the treatment of sheltered workshop earnings from unearned income to earned income, thereby qualifying sheltered workshop earnings for the earned income exclusion;

•	Providing for the continuation of SSI payments for certain disabled individuals enrolled in vocational rehabilitation programs whose disability ceased due to medical recovery (extended to SSI blind recip­ients, effective April, 1988);

•	Establishing section 1619 which provided:

—	In subsection 1619(a), special SSI cash benefits to disabled individuals who lose eligibility for SSI payments because they have earnings exceeding the level that is ordinarily considered to represent substantial gainful activity (SGA), and

—	In subsection 1619(b), special SSI recipient status for Medicaid purposes to working disabled or blind individuals when their earnings make them ineligible for cash payments.

The incentives for work and opportunities for rehabilitation are discussed in more detail in section III.E. In the tables that follow we provide historical information on participation by SSI recipients in work incen­tive programs.¹

a. Numbers of Participants in Work Incentive Programs

In this section, we present historical data on participation by SSI recipients in work incentive programs. Table V.E1 presents historical numbers of SSI recipients categorized according to their section 1619 sta­tus. Figure V.E1 presents this information in graphical form.

 

 

Table V.E1.—SSI Federally-Administered Blind or Disabled Working Recipients as of December, 1987‑2007

Year	SGA level 1	In current-payment status		1619(b) workers 4	Total workers
		1619(a) workers 2	Other workers 3
1987	$300	14,559	142,664	15,632	172,855
1988	300	19,920	153,599	15,625	189,144
1989	300	25,655	161,928	18,254	205,837
1990	500	13,994	182,421	23,517	219,932
1991	500	15,531	186,824	27,264	229,619
1992	500	17,603	199,665	31,649	248,917
1993	500	20,028	210,322	35,299	265,649
1994	500	24,315	217,478	40,683	282,476
1995	500	28,060	223,573	47,002	298,635
1996	500	31,085	225,310	51,905	308,300
1997	500	34,673	228,093	57,089	319,855
1998	500	37,271	229,662	59,542	326,475
1999	5 700	25,528	245,825	69,265	340,618
2000	700	27,542	249,313	83,572	360,427
2001	740	22,100	247,555	76,455	346,110
2002	780	17,271	241,462	82,177	340,910
2003	800	17,132	235,453	71,097	323,682
2004	810	17,114	237,409	73,681	328,204
2005	830	17,621	240,744	78,205	336,570
2006	860	17,394	242,676	89,350	349,420
2007	900	16,939	242,854	97,551	357,344

1Increases in 2001 and subsequent years are based on increases in the national average wage index.

2Workers’ earnings are above SGA level.

3Workers’ earnings are at or below SGA level.

41619(b) recipients are not in current-payment status but retain SSI recipient status for Medicaid purposes.

5Increased to $700 in July 1999.

 

Figure V.E1.—SSI Federally-Administered Blind or Disabled Working Recipients
as of December, 1987‑2007[In thousands]

[D]

Table V.E2 presents historical numbers of SSI recipients who benefit from other selected work incentive provisions: (1) plan to achieve self-support (PASS), (2) impairment-related work expense exclusion (IRWE), and (3) blind work expense exclusion (BWE). These recipients may be benefiting from more than one of these selected work incentive provisions. This information is available only for calendar years 1990 and later.

 

Table V.E2.—SSI Federally-Administered Blind or Disabled Individuals with SSI Recipient Status Participating
in Other Work Incentives as of December, 1990‑2007

Year	PASS 1			IRWE	BWE
	Non-workers	Workers	Total
1990	1,215	1,040	2,255	5,384	4,385
1991	1,969	1,601	3,570	6,546	4,330
1992	3,189	2,658	5,847	7,813	4,454
1993	4,528	3,602	8,130	8,629	4,406
1994	5,842	4,487	10,329	9,484	4,380
1995	5,719	4,603	10,322	9,940	4,433
1996	2,760	1,944	4,704	9,799	4,230
1997	1,290	708	1,998	9,637	4,116
1998	712	362	1,074	9,301	3,802
1999	698	347	1,045	9,520	3,971
2000	862	520	1,382	9,422	3,895
2001	1,024	576	1,600	8,798