It goes without saying that nobody wants to find him or herself disabled and dealing with the subsequent physical and emotional results. However, there are millions of people from one side of the country to the next who are in this position. While some are able to receive federal disability benefits or those through a private insurer, others are fighting to get what is owed to them.
According to data released by the Social Security Administration, the total number of individuals in the US receiving federal disability benefits reached a record high of 10,982,920 during the month of November 2013.
This number of disability beneficiaries can be broken down into three groups: 8,941,660 disabled workers, 1,883,594 children of these workers, and 157,666 spouses of these workers. As you can see, it is not just the people who are receiving benefits who are impacted but also their families.
The number of Americans receiving disability benefits in October was 8,936,932, which is approximately 5,000 fewer than November. Many are surprised to find that November was the 202nd straight month in which the number of disabled workers in the country increased. Furthermore, the last time the number increased from one month to the next was January 1997.
To put things into perspective, there are more disability beneficiaries in the United States in November than there are people in the countries of Greece (10,772,967) and Portugal (10,799,270).
There are people all over the country receiving many types of disability, both from the federal government as well as private insurance companies. Anybody who has been denied long term disability or short term disability should contact a knowledgeable attorney.
Source: CNSNews.com, “10,982,920: More Americans on Disability Than People in Greece” Terence P. Jeffrey, Dec. 03, 2013