Disability in the United States
People with disabilities in the United States are a significant minority group, making up a fifth of the overall population and over half of Americans older than eighty.[1][2] There is a complex history underlying the U.S. and its relationship with its disabled population, with great progress being made in the last century to improve the livelihood of disabled citizens through legislation providing protections and benefits.[3] Most notably, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a comprehensive anti-discrimination policy that works to protect Americans with disabilities in public settings and the workplace.[1]
According to the Social Security Advisory Board, when the federal government first began provisioning funds for state-run disability assistance programs, eligible beneficiaries were defined as needing to be "totally and permanently disabled".[4] In 1956, this definition was expanded by the Disability Insurance Program to describe disability as the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or to be of long-continued and indefinite duration."[4] Critics indicated that this language limited the concept of disability to an occupational scope, and more holistic definitions were adopted as time passed.[5] The modern consensus on disability within governmental, medical, sociological realms in the United States is that it includes impairments that either physically or mentally incapacitate individuals from engaging in significant life activities, or the perception of possessing such an impairment.[6][7] For instance, in a 2013 study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) evaluated disability across five dimensions: vision, cognition, mobility, self-care, and independent living.[8] Specific conditions that fall under this umbrella vary circumstantially, however it is broadly accepted that disability includes, but is not limited to the following:[5][6]
Public resources[edit]
Social Security Administration[edit]
The Social Security Administration (SSA), defines disability in terms of an individual's inability to perform substantial gainful activity (SGA), by which it means "work paying minimum wage or better". The agency pairs SGA with a list of medical conditions that qualify individuals for disability benefits. Individuals who are disabled will receive insurance and this ensures they will always be getting paid when they must take time off work or cannot work due to the severity of their illness. The SSDI and the SSI are both social security programs that will assist in payments.
The SSA makes available to disabled Americans two forms of disability benefits: Social Security Disability Insurance, (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Briefly, the SSDI is a program that is useful in the sense that it is like welfare, but you must have been able to work enough hours throughout your life and you must have paid social security taxes in order to be approved. This benefit is most useful for those who do not have severe disabilities or illnesses because those who are immobile will not have been able to work. The good thing about this benefit does not only do it benefit the individual, but it will benefit their family members as well. To go more in-depth, Social Security pays disability benefits to citizens who have worked long enough and have a medical condition that has prevented them from working or is expected to prevent them from working for at least 12 months or end in death.
Looking at the SSI, the SSI insurance, or the Social Security Insurance program, is there to pay individual benefits who could not have worked or have little capital. However, for both of these insurances, the same approval is required by the individual's disability.
[75]
Some assistance ends if the beneficiary starts working. If that assistance (such as personal care or transportation) is necessary for work, it creates a welfare trap where it is not possible to work despite potentially being willing and able.[76] Some programs do provide incentives to work.[77]