Disability - Education Level And Disability Status

The pie graph presents the breakdown of all disabled workers receiving Social Security disability benefits in 1998 by highest level of education attained. A total of 5,158,545 adults were receiving disability benefits in 1998. The education level breakdown falls pretty close to a one-third, one-third, one-third split.

Nearly one third (30.4%) of beneficiaries had never completed high school. Those who had completed high school represent roughly another third, 36.1%. Finally, beneficiaries who had attained at least some schooling after high school made up the final third, 33.5%.

This breakdown does not follow the pattern present in the adult population generally. Those with no high school diploma represent 30.4% of workers on disability and only 19.6% of the general adult population¹⁰. At the other end of the spectrum, those with more than a high school degree, we see the opposite situation. Of disability beneficiaries, only 33.5% have done any study beyond the high school level whereas in the adult population generally more than half (51.8%) of adults have done some study beyond high school.

Many of those with limited education hold down manual jobs. Not surprisingly, their bodies pay a price. When an accountant gets arthritic pain and stiffness in her knees, she can keep on trucking, but the ready-mix concrete truck driver can not. Thus it's not surprising that the majority of those who have disabilities also have a lower educational attainment.

The rise in mental disorders as a cause of work disability may begin to change this educational attainment differential. But, that is yet to be seen. Depression often follows a serious illness. If the patient is a middle aged man or woman, recently laid-off of a well paid job at which he or she worked for many years, and finds that he or she is ill prepared for any other job, the depression may well be even more severe.

In this panel we focused on disabled workers receiving disability benefits. What about the overall disabled population? Do they have the same educational opportunities as the population at large? That is what we will address in the next panel.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, "Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program, 2000," September 2001, Table 45, available online at http://www.ssa.gov/statistics/di_asr/2000/sect6.html.