Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
60 Minutes this past Sunday did a piece on a story that has been talked about in these pages for a long time – the rapid increase in disability enrollment since the recession half a decade ago. It is quite remarkable that effectively 5% of the working population is now enrolled. [Apr 7, 2011: Nearly 1 in 20 Working Age Americans Are on Disability, a Doubling Versus 1990] [Dec 18, 2011: Nearly 10% of Near Retirees Who Lack Savings Apply for Disability as Their Unemployment Benefits are Set to Expire]
Surely, some proportion of this increase is viable as the baby boomer generation heads to their retirement years, but it certainly strikes some with suspicion that such a large amount of people have enrolled the past 5+ years. But the incentives are there both in the private sector and at the state sectors; there was a startling piece by NPR recently showing how not only is it in the state's interest to move people from their assistance programs into a federal program but they now actively are recruiting people to do so. Economically it makes sense – they transfer an "obligation" off their books and onto someone else's but the manpower now devoted by state employees to do this was surprising. And of course every late night TV show is full of commercials for lawyers telling us how they can get us on disability… just call them.
For those interested, here is the 13 minute video:
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