Limits on Receipt of Multiple Disability Benefits Could Save Millions.
Abstract
In performing our review, we determined that about 4,900 Federal, State, and local programs include disability benefits. Forty-five of these programs are administered by the Federal Government. We defined Federal disability programs as those exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or those supported by tax revenue. During fiscal year 1980, these Federal programs paid over $37 billion in benefits to over 11 million beneficiaries. The most recent data on the State or local programs gathered by the Bureau of the Census in 1977 showed that for 3,075 State and local government benefit programs about 152,000 persons were receiving annual disability benefits of about $600 million. Data were not available on the other State and local programs. A sample of 11,669 DI recipients on the rolls as of March 1980 was matched against the disability rolls of the 8 largest Federal retirement systems, 12 large State and local government retirement systems, and the workers' compensation programs of the States and territories. The programs matched represented about 98 percent of the total Federal beneficiaries and about 38 percent of the total State and local government beneficiaries. The results showed that 1,913 (about 16 percent) of the DI beneficiaries also received beneftis from one or more of the matched programs. About 41 percent of these beneficiaries received aggregate benefits exceeding their predisability earnings. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 28, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA106874
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office