Economic Justice

“It’s the greatest professional disappointment of my career,” Bruce Growick told me recently without a trace of doubt in his voice. The former president of the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals was referring to the Ticket to Work program, a 1999 outgrowth of Social Security Disability Insurance that was intended to funnel the nation’s growing ranks of injured workers back into the workforce. In the 90s, Growick testified before the committees that would draft Ticket to Work and met with lawmakers to help shape it. Years before he became skeptical of its effectiveness, he was optimistic about what it might do for disabled individuals.

“Having a job is so much better than being paid to stay at home,” he says. In his testimony, Growick said, “The role of government should be to assist and encourage persons with disabilities towards employment.”

One reason for the low rates of work among disability recipients is that the task of enrolling in disability in the first place is rather daunting. Signing up for benefits requires, first, an in-depth review of medical records by state officials and sometimes doctors. Two-thirds of applicants are rejected at this step. From there, applicants can appeal, and an additional 11 percent get through at this point. Everyone else must endure a tense hearing before a judge. When all is said and done, years can pass between the moment the person is injured and the moment they hold a freshly cut check in their hands.

“You apply, you wait and wait and wait,” said Nicole Maestas, a senior economist at RAND who has studied SSDI. “It took you three years to get the benefits, and that whole time you couldn’t work. Now someone comes to you and says, ‘Hey, let’s try and work.’”