Disability Insurance: Does Extending Unemployment Benefits Help?
The Great Recession has resulted in the highest national unemployment rate in nearly 30 years, and those who find themselves unemployed remain jobless longer than ever before. In response, the federal government has extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for up to 99 weeks, almost a year and a half longer than normal durations.
At the same time, applications for Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) benefits, which had been increasing for decades,1 reached an all-time high in 2009 and have continued to rise. An important question is how the availability of unemployment insurance, in general, and extended UI benefits, in particular, affect SSDI applications and the composition of the pool of applicants. This question is the topic of this brief...