This week’s charts show total receipts, expenditures, and
assets left in the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund.
Data from the 2013 Trustees Report show that the disability fund is
currently predicted to be three years from insolvency. Under more
pessimistic assumptions, the insolvency date is pushed up to 2015. The
fact that the DI trust fund is not currently depleted shouldn’t mislead
us into thinking we have until 2016 to deal with the shortfalls.
Spending
on Social Security has more than doubled in the past decade, and DI now
accounts for almost 20 percent of Social Security’s budget, up from 10
percent in 1988. The trust fund has been operating under deficits since
2008, as shown by the decline in the trust fund (green bars) and
ever-growing gap between the payments (red line) and receipts (blue
line). Despite these trends, disability insurance programs are often
left out of the social safety net discussion.
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