Rolling dole: Number of PA residents getting disability up 50 percent since ’03

The number of people in Pennsylvania getting monthly disability benefits through Social Security is growing at an alarming rate.
Social Security Administration data show more than 390,000 Pennsylvanians qualified for disability payments in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available.

GOING UP: The number of Pennsylvanians receiving disability benefits through Social Security is on the rise – up 50 percent since 2003 – and that’s driving up the overall total Social Security benefits paid in Pennsylvania.

That figure represents a 50 percent increase since 2003, well above the national average of 39 percent growth during the same time.
If all of those beneficiaries lived in the same place would they would comprise the state’s second largest city – trailing only Philadelphia and beating Pittsburgh by more than 80,000 residents.
Nationally, the number of recipients getting disability payments through Social Security has more than tripled since 1970, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the increases have been sharper in recent years.
More women entering the workforce has been a contributing factor, as is a change 20 years ago that allowed children of disabled workers to qualify for benefits.

http://watchdog.org/95724/rolling-dole-number-of-pa-residents-getting-disability-up-50-percent-since-03/