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Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries with Intellectual Disability

People with intellectual disability (ID) make up about 14 percent of all working-age Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries. Because of their disabilities, many face major employment challenges and often receive federal disability program benefits for several decades. This article describes these beneficiaries and compares them to those without ID. The two groups differ markedly in a number of ways; for example, those with ID are more likely to be working, but they also earn significantly less than other disability program beneficiaries. Their relatively low earnings, combined with low benefits, contribute to a higher overall rate of poverty--particularly among those who receive only DI. Introduction Intellectual disability (ID) is relatively uncommon; studies have estimated that less than 5 percent of the general population has ID (McKenzie and others 2016; Maulik and others 2011). Although the prevalence of ID is rare in the general population, people with ID make up a sizable share (about 14 percent) of the 13 million working-age Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries. (1) ID is especially common among SSI recipients--more than one-fifth of them are eligible for payments because of ID. ID is typically diagnosed during childhood. As a result, many beneficiaries with ID enter the SSI or DI programs at a young age and receive benefits for decades. Children with ID make up about 9 percent of children enrolled in SSI (SSA 2015b), and the large majority of them (about 80 percent) continue to qualify for SSI payments after age 18 (Hemmeter and Gilby 2009). Riley and Rupp (2015) estimated that beneficiaries with ID remain in the disability programs as working-age adults for an average of 29 years--about twice the average for all disability program beneficiaries. This long tenure contributes to much higher average DI, SSI, Medicare, and Medicaid cumulative expenditures than the estimated average for all beneficiaries ($472,913 versus $292,401, in 2012 dollars) (Riley and Rupp 2015). Given their large number and long tenure on the disability rolls, beneficiaries with ID represent a potentially important target group for support services designed to enable community living, permit long-term employment, and reduce reliance on public benefits. Effective supports could also affect federal and state initiatives designed to promote employment opportunities for people with ID and developmental disabilities (DDs) in competitive, community-based employment, rather than in sheltered employment settings, where they earn low wages and remain segregated from mainstream society. Information on the characteristics and employment experiences of people with ID is limited because identifying people with ID in national surveys can be difficult (Emerson, Felce, and Stancliffe 2013; Hendershot and others 2005). In addition, the relatively low prevalence of ID in the general population makes it difficult to study a large sample. Most of the information about people with ID comes from administrative sources (such as state education, vocational rehabilitation, and DD agencies) and from special surveys (such as those conducted for the National Longitudinal Transition Study and the National Core Indicators [NCI] project, which use administrative data to identify individuals with ID). Our study adds to the existing information by profiling working-age adults with ID who receive SSI and DI benefits. We use data from several rounds of a large, nationally representative survey of SSI and DI beneficiaries to describe the personal characteristics, employment, and income sources of beneficiaries with ID, and we compare them with those of disability program beneficiaries with other impairments. Our findings provide a better understanding of the working-age population with ID that relies on federal disability program benefits, the employment challenges they face, and the differences in their employment experiences from SSI and DI beneficiaries with other significant disabilities. …