National Beneficiary Survey: Disability Statistics, 2019

Benefits and Employment Interactions

Table 33. Work activity notification of SSA by beneficiaries employed at interview, by program (in percent)
Notification Overall Program
DI only Concurrent DI and SSI SSI only
Notified SSA when started current job
Yes 82.4 82.2 86.2 79.9
No 12.9 12.1 12.0 16.0
Unknown 4.6 5.7 1.9 4.1
How long after job start SSA was notified (among those who notified SSA)
Less than 1 month 73.9 70.3 83.1 75.7
1–3 months 20.6 21.7 14.0 23.1
4 months or more 4.8 7.3 1.2 1.1
Unknown 0.7 0.7 1.6 0.1
Number (unweighted)
All beneficiaries 9,092 4,281 1,813 2,998
Beneficiaries employed at interview 4,597 2,237 948 1,412
Number (weighted)
All beneficiaries 12,666,165 7,387,330 1,771,690 3,507,145
Beneficiaries employed at interview 1,212,138 711,944 229,858 270,335
Beneficiaries employed at interview as a percentage of all beneficiaries (weighted) 9.6 9.6 13.0 7.7
 
Table 34. Recently employed beneficiaries affected by benefit adjustments because of work, by program (in percent)
Characteristic Overall Program
DI only Concurrent DI and SSI SSI only
DI or SSI benefit adjusted because of work
Yes 28.1 17.2 36.8 43.9
No 61.8 79.5 49.4 35.1
Unknown 10.1 3.3 13.8 21.0
Of those whose benefit was adjusted because of work—
SSA paid the wrong benefit amount
Yes 41.0 37.7 56.3 35.3
No or unknown 59.0 62.3 43.7 64.7
Beneficiary was asked to repay overpaid benefits
Yes (was overpaid because of work) 36.1 42.4 35.9 31.4
Yes (was overpaid for other reasons) 9.0 6.2 5.5 13.0
No 53.5 50.6 58.0 53.2
Unknown 1.5 0.9 0.5 2.4
Disability-related benefits were reduced or terminated
Yes 69.9 72.3 71.0 67.3
No 22.0 23.4 23.8 19.9
Unknown 8.2 4.3 5.2 12.8
If yes, type of benefit reduced or terminated a
DI or SSI 78.1 75.4 89.6 72.9
Medicare 10.2 24.7 2.0 1.5
Medicaid b 4.1 6.5 1.7 3.4
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program 4.7 4.3 3.5 5.8
Other 5.6 10.5 1.9 3.3
Number (unweighted)
All beneficiaries 9,092 4,281 1,813 2,998
Recently employed beneficiaries 5,759 2,814 1,197 1,748
Number (weighted)
All beneficiaries 12,666,165 7,387,330 1,771,690 3,507,145
Recently employed beneficiaries 1,810,403 986,226 321,141 503,036
Recently employed beneficiaries as a percentage of all beneficiaries (weighted) 14.3 13.4 18.1 14.3
NOTE: "Recently employed" refers to beneficiaries who were working at interview, within the 6 months prior to interview, or at any point in 2018. This means that some beneficiaries who worked in early 2019 may be omitted.
a. Multiple responses possible.
b. Medicaid reductions or terminations among DI-only beneficiaries could be due to loss of SSI because of work, loss of Medicaid eligibility through Medicaid pathways other than SSI eligibility, or confusion between Medicare and Medicaid among respondents.
Table 35. Awareness of disability program work supports among eligible beneficiaries, by program and employment status (in percent)
Program and support All eligible beneficiaries Program Beneficiaries employed at interview
DI only Concurrent DI and SSI SSI only
SSI work incentive
1619(b) continued Medicaid coverage 14.8 . . . 19.3 12.5 23.3
Earned income exclusion 12.5 . . . 12.1 12.8 21.4
Plan to achieve self-support 9.5 . . . 12.3 8.2 12.5
Property essential for self-support 5.2 . . . 6.0 4.8 10.4
Student earned income exclusion a 11.6 . . . 20.4 10.2 12.1
DI work incentive
Trial work period 35.4 37.2 27.6 . . . 49.5
Extended Medicare eligibility 16.5 16.6 16.1 . . . 32.2
SSI and DI work incentive
Ticket to Work 33.2 33.6 37.9 30.2 51.0
Work Incentives Planning and Assistance 20.6 21.6 21.2 18.2 32.6
Impairment-related or blind work expenses 11.1 13.2 9.7 7.6 16.1
Expedited reinstatement 15.1 17.8 11.6 11.1 27.7
NOTES: Excludes "Don't know" and "Refused" responses.
. . . = not applicable.
a. Awareness rate was calculated as the percentage among SSI recipients aged 25 or younger who began receiving benefits before age 22, as only SSI recipients under age 22 can claim this exclusion.