Disability Benefits Aren’t Keeping Men Out of the Workforce
Claims that increasing numbers of working-age men are choosing to collect disability benefits rather than find employment are unfounded, argues a new report from the Center for American Progress. Disability Benefits Do Not Stop Men from Working finds that although there has been a significant decline in men’s labor participation rate over the past 50 years, from 97 percent to 89 percent, increased disability claims account for barely 0.1 percentage point of that decline. The number of working-age men collecting Social Security Disability Insurance has increased only modestly over the past decades, and it is more likely that factors like automation and increased childcare responsibilities are driving the decline in men’s labor participation, according to the report.