[acb-hsp] Disabled, But Looking for Work

[peter altschul]

April 6, 2011

Disabled, but Looking for Work

By MOTOKO RICH

BATESVILLE, Ark.  - Christopher Howard suffers from herniated 
discs in his back, knee problems and hepatitis C.  As a result, 
Social Security sends him $574 every month and will until he 
reaches retirement age -- unless he can find a job.

Though he has been collecting disability checks for three years, 
Mr.  Howard, who is just 36, desperately wants to work, recalling 
dredging for gravel rather fondly and repairing cell towers less 
fondly.

"It makes me feel like I am doing something," said Mr.  Howard, a 
burly man with a honey-colored goatee.  "Instead of just being a 
bum, pretty much."

Programs intended to steer people with more moderate disabilities 
back into jobs have managed to take only a small sliver of 
beneficiaries off the Social Security rolls.  Yet, at a time when 
employers are struggling to create spots for the 13.5 million 
people actively looking for jobs, helping people like Mr.  Howard 
find employment -- or keeping them working in the first place -- 
is becoming increasingly important to the nation's fiscal health.

For the last five years, Social Security has paid out more in 
benefits to disabled workers than it has taken in from payroll 
taxes.  Government actuaries forecast that the disability trust 
fund will run out of money by 2018.

About 8.2 million people collected disabled worker benefits 
totaling $115 billion last year, up from 5 million a decade 
earlier.  About one in 21 Americans from age 25 to 64 receive the 
benefit, according to an analysis of Social Security data by 
Prof.  Mark G.  Duggan, an economist at the University of 
Maryland, compared with one in 30 a little over a decade ago.  In 
Mr.  Howard's home state of Arkansas, the figure is one in 12, 
among the highest in the nation.  Along with monthly checks that 
are based on the worker's earnings history, beneficiaries 
generally qualify for Medicare -- otherwise reserved for those 
over 65 -- two years after being admitted to the disability 
rolls.

There are several reasons for the increase in beneficiaries  
Baby boomers are hitting the age when health starts to 
deteriorate, and more people are claiming back and other 
muscular-skeletal ailments and mental illnesses than claimed 
those as disabilities a generation ago.  Lawyers who solicit 
clients on television and on the Internet probably play a role.  
And administrative law judges say pressure to process cases 
sometimes leads to more disability claims being accepted.  But 
given the difficult job market, some economists say they believe 
that an increasing number of people rely on disability benefits 
as a kind of shadow safety net.

The program was designed to help workers who are "permanently and 
totally disabled," and administration officials say that it is an 
important lifeline for many people who simply cannot work at all.

But Social Security officials can take into consideration a 
claimant's age, skills and ability to retrain when determining 
eligibility.  So one question is: How many of these beneficiaries 
could work, given the right services and workplace 
accommodations? Social Security officials say relatively few.

Nicole Maestas, an economist at the Rand Corporation, has 
examined Social Security data with fellow economist Kathleen J.  
Mullen, and concluded that in the absence of benefits, about 18 
percent of recipients could work and earn at least $12,000 a 
year, the threshold at which benefits are suspended.  Other 
economists say that even among those denied benefits, a majority 
fail to go back to work, in part because of medical problems and 
a lack of marketable skills.

"In an atmosphere in which there is a concern about fiscal 
problems, it's always easy to point the finger at groups and say, 
'These people should be working1' was said Prof.  John Bound, an 
economist at the University of Michigan, "exaggerating the degree 
to which the disability insurance program is broken."

Even if claimants have more ambiguous medical cases, once they 
are granted disability benefits, they generally continue to 
collect.  Of the 567,395 medical reviews conducted on 
beneficiaries in 2009, Social Security expects less than 1 
percent to leave because of improved health.

The benefits have no expiration date, like the current 99-week 
limit for collecting unemployment.  And because many people spend 
years appealing denials and building their medical case before 
being granted benefits, their skills often atrophy and gaps open 
on their résumés, making it more difficult for them to get back 
to work.

Beneficiaries, who also fear losing health care coverage, may 
view their checks as birds in the hand.  "Even if you're taking 
just $800 or $900 a month, that's better than nothing," said 
Bruce Growick, an associate professor of rehabilitation services 
at Ohio State University.

Shortly after Mr.  Howard's benefit checks started arriving, he 
received a four-by-six-inch card from Social Security informing 
him of services to help him return to work.  Confused by the 
bureaucratic language and fearing the loss of medical coverage, 
he discarded it.  When he called the local office, he said a 
staff member did not seem to know what his rights were or what 
help was available.

"I thought it is just better to get what we are getting," he 
said.

In fact, Social Security offers disability beneficiaries some 
incentive to ease back into the work force.  For nine months 
after starting a job, they can earn any amount without 
threatening their benefits.  For another three years, if their 
income falls below $1,000 a month, they can immediately receive 
full benefits again.  And they can keep Medicare coverage for 
eight and a half years after going back to work, something few 
beneficiaries may realize.

In 1999, Congress passed a law authorizing the Ticket to Work 
program, which offers beneficiaries practical help with a job 
search.  Social Security also waives medical reviews for those 
who participate.

So far, the program has had little success.  Out of 12.5 million 
disabled workers and those who receive benefits for the disabled 
poor, only 13,656 returned to work over the last two and a half 
years, with less than a third of them earning enough to drop the 
benefits.

A Social Security spokesman noted that some other beneficiaries 
had returned to work without using its Ticket to Work program.  
In 2009, 32,445 recipients left the benefit rolls because they 
were earning enough in jobs.

Officials say they have streamlined and simplified the Ticket to 
Work program.  But even with more awareness, they say not enough 
people could go back to work to make a difference in the 
disability trust fund.

"We could make this program exponentially more successful and it 
wouldn't be enough to dramatically improve the solvency picture," 
said Michael J.  Astrue, the commissioner of Social Security.  
"You do it because work -- for people who can work -- gives them 
dignity and improves their economic condition."

In Batesville, a small manufacturing town about 80 miles 
northeast of Little Rock, Ark., Mr.  Howard and his wife, 
Darlene, who is also out of work, scrape by on his monthly $574 
check.  They live in a garage behind the home owned by Mr.  
Howard's parents.  Inside the forest green shack, which has no 
running water, they have crammed some shabby furniture and a tiny 
galley kitchen.

Mr.  Howard, who went to a community college for only six weeks 
and quit before becoming a certified nursing aide, landed work 
over the years through friends and family.  One job was building 
and repairing cell towers in Illinois.  In 2000, during a climb 
up a tower, Mr.  Howard fell more than 20 feet before a pull cord 
stopped him.  He quit on the spot, but ignored the back pain.

He moved back to Arkansas, met Ms.  Howard and began working for 
a company that dredged the White River for gravel used to make 
asphalt and concrete.  He operated 25- to 40-pound pumps, drove a 
forklift and repaired plant vehicles, earning $8.50 an hour, or 
about $22,000 a year with overtime.

The job kept him outside every day, and sometimes he fished for 
bass and trout on the way upriver.  "I would still be doing that 
job if I could," he said on a cool March afternoon as he sat in a 
booth at McDonald's, sharing refills of Dr Pepper with his wife.

Six years ago, his working life came to a halt.  While fixing a 
dump truck, he began vomiting blood.  He was rushed to the 
hospital, where his gallbladder was removed, because of 
complications of the hepatitis C he had contracted from a tattoo 
in his early 20's.

Mr.  Howard, who said he spent much of his 20's hanging out with 
the "wrong crowd," admits he played a role in his poor health.  
"I was living pretty heavily on the weekends," he said.

After the surgery, doctors determined he had herniated discs.  He 
tried to go back to work but found he could not perform many 
tasks, like heavy lifting, and was dismissed.

His initial application for disability benefits was denied.  He 
tried going back to work, hanging dry wall, but pain stopped him.  
Eventually, he hired a lawyer.  After three years and three 
tries, he won benefits.

Last September, he met Shawn Blasczczyk, a coordinator of the 
Ticket to Work program with the White River Area Agency on Aging 
in Ash Flat, Ark., who had given a presentation at an employment 
office where Mr.  Howard's father worked.  After learning he had 
some protections while searching for work, Mr.  Howard decided to 
try.

Advocates for the disabled say Social Security makes lackluster 
efforts to promote the Ticket to Work program.  All new 
beneficiaries should have an appointment to "talk to a benefits 
counselor about returning to work and how it will affect you," 
said Lori Gentry, a care manager at the White River agency, a 
nonprofit that works with disabled beneficiaries.  "I don't think 
that is a whole lot to ask to get a monthly check."

Some advocates recommend intervention before people receive 
benefits to try to help the disabled stay in jobs in the first 
place.  In a proposal for the Center for American Progress and 
the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project, Professor Duggan of 
the University of Maryland and Prof.  David H.  Autor, an 
economist at M.I.T., suggest that disabled workers be offered 
partial income support and services to remain in the workplace.  
Moreover, they advocate for employers to purchase mandatory 
disability insurance as they do unemployment insurance and 
workers' compensation, giving them incentive to accommodate 
workers rather than send them to the federal benefit rolls.

Mr.  Howard is bumping up against his limitations, only some of 
which have to do with his medical condition.  Last September, Ms.  
Blasczczyk helped place him in a job driving seniors to doctors' 
appointments, but he quit after six months because of the stress.  
Scrolling through job listings at McDonald's on a recent 
afternoon, he noted that many required college degrees.

Still, Mr.  Howard is confident he will eventually find some 
work.  While searching, he and Ms.  Howard, who is also applying 
for work, have quit smoking and are trying to eat healthier 
foods.  They have joined Mr.  Howard's father in a Bible study 
group.

"I would feel better if I worked and made my own money," he said.  
"Because that way when somebody who needs it even more than I do, 
the Social Security would be there for them."