The U.S. disability insurance system is an important part of the federal social safety net; it provides financial protection to working-age Americans who have illnesses, injuries, or conditions that render them unable to work as they did before becoming disabled or that prevent them from adjusting to other work. An examination of the workings of the system, however, raises deep concerns about its financial stability and effectiveness. Disability rolls are rising, household income for the disabled is stagnant, and employment rates among people with disabilities are at an all-time low. Mary Daly and Richard Burkhauser contend that these outcomes are not inevitable; rather, they are reflections of the incentives built into public policies targeted at those with disabilities, namely the SSDI, SSI-disabled adults, and SSI-disabled children benefit programs. The Declining Work and Welfare of People with Disabilities considers how policies could be changed to improve the well-being of people with disabilities and to control the unsustainable growth in program costs.

Topics covered include changes in the nature of work, rising health care expenditures, changing disability population, the American with Disabilities Act, social security disability insurance.

"In this provocative volume, Richard V. Burkhauser and Mary C. Daly argue that the U.S. disability system is failing--growing at an unsustainable pace for taxpayers and delivering relatively poor outcomes to those with disabilities. These outcomes are not the inevitable results of demographic or health changes but rather the unintended consequences of changes to two public programs designed to assist those with disabilities: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Drawing on lessons from two recent policy initiatives--the reform of U.S. welfare policy and the reform of Dutch disability policy--and analyzing how public insurance and welfare program incentives affect behavior, Burkhauser and Daly argue for fundamental changes in the way disability is insured and managed. In keeping with the Americans with Disabilities Act's philosophy of encouraging people with disabilities to remain in the workforce, the authors recommend changes in SSDI and SSI that make work, rather than benefits, the primary goal of federal disability policy."--From publisher description.

Bringing together contributions from institutions such as the OECD, the WHO, the World Bank and the European Disability Forum, as well as policy makers and researchers, this volume focuses on disability and work. The contributors address a wide range of issues including what it means to be disabled, what rights and responsibilities society has for people with disabilities, how disability benefits should be structured, and what role employers should play. Fundamental reading for specialists in disability, social protection and public economics, and for social policy academics, researchers and students generally, Transforming Disability Welfare Policies makes an enormous contribution to the literature.

EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This is the first book to challenge the concept of paid work for disabled people as a means to ‘independence’ and ‘self determination’. Recent attempts in many countries to increase the employment rates of disabled people have actually led to an erosion of financial support for many workless disabled people and their increasing stigmatisation as ‘scroungers’. Led by the disability movement’s concern with the employment choices faced by disabled people, this controversial book uses sociological and philosophical approaches, as well as international examples, to critically engage with possible alternatives to paid work. Essential reading for students, practitioners, activists and anyone interested in relationships between work, welfare and disability.

The future of disability in America will depend on how well the U.S. prepares for and manages the demographic, fiscal, and technological developments that will unfold during the next two to three decades. Building upon two prior studies from the Institute of Medicine (the 1991 Institute of Medicine's report Disability in America and the 1997 report Enabling America), The Future of Disability in America examines both progress and concerns about continuing barriers that limit the independence, productivity, and participation in community life of people with disabilities. This book offers a comprehensive look at a wide range of issues, including the prevalence of disability across the lifespan; disability trends the role of assistive technology; barriers posed by health care and other facilities with inaccessible buildings, equipment, and information formats; the needs of young people moving from pediatric to adult health care and of adults experiencing premature aging and secondary health problems; selected issues in health care financing (e.g., risk adjusting payments to health plans, coverage of assistive technology); and the organizing and financing of disability-related research. The Future of Disability in America is an assessment of both principles and scientific evidence for disability policies and services. This book's recommendations propose steps to eliminate barriers and strengthen the evidence base for future public and private actions to reduce the impact of disability on individuals, families, and society.

Disabled workers, social cost, social policy, USA - rights of the disabled, employment quota, disability benefits, vocational rehabilitation programmes, sheltered employment. References, statistical tables.

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the employment of persons with disabilities has taken center stage in policy debates. The passage of the ADA could not have come at a more propitious time: the employment situation of persons with disabilities, particularly older workers, has been worsening dramatically for over two decades. In the traditional view, this worsening employment necessarily follows the aging of the population, which puts more of us at risk for chronic disease and impairment. Yelin does not agree with that view, nor with the alternative view that disability compensation programs entice persons with minimal disabilities to leave the work force by providing them with a secure income. In this controversial new book, Yelin dispels both these views and argues that the welfare state is not to be blamed for the growth in work disability. Rather, Yelin maintains that the growing work disability problem is due to the decline of manufacturing employment, which drove older workers with disabilities out of the labor force as part of a "first-fired" phenomenon. He links disability to changes in all forms of work that made secure full-time employment with a wide range of benefits a thing of the past. Yelin argues that work disability policy and industrial policy must be joined to create a heightened demand for older workers generally and older workers with disabilities in particular. When employers create work environments flexible enough to accommodate people with disabilities, they enjoy the benefits of an exceptionally skilled, able work force - and the economies of a smaller welfare system. Paradoxically, the products of flexible manufacturing have been very successful in the marketplace, demonstrating that what is good for workers with disabilities is also good for all workers and for the economy as a whole.

Reviews the US Social Security disability programme, with a view to determining whether rehabilitation and work could be incorporated in the income programme without greatly expanding costs or weakening the right to benefit for disabled persons.

The transition of single women with children off the welfare rolls and into employment (see Figures 1 and 2) in the 1990s has been described as "stunning" by leading policy researchers (see, for instance, Blank 2002). The authors in The Decline in Employment of People with Disabilities: A Policy Puzzle (Stapleton and Burkhauser 2003) document and analyze an equally stunning transition of working-age people with disabilities out of the workforce and onto disability income support programs (see Figures 1 and 2), despite the upsurge in government rhetoric proclaiming increased employment and economic independence as a primary policy goal. Employment and program participation trends for both populations departed sharply from trends in the prior decade.