Disability Education

It happens more often than you'd imagine

  • In just the past hour, almost 3,000 Americans became disabled. That's 49 every minute.
  • Over 51 million Americans - 18% of the population - are classified as disabled.
  • Every :01 second another disabling injury occurs in the US. Every four minutes the injury is fatal.
  • Almost one-third of Americans entering the work force today (3 in 10) will become disabled before they retire.
  • Nearly 7 million workers currently receive Social Security Disability benefits. Almost half are under age 50.

Disability causes severe financial hardship

How long could you afford to be without a paycheck?

  • 350,000 personal bankruptcies every year are blamed on injuries and unexpected illnesses.
  • Nearly 50% of all mortgage foreclosures are caused by disability. Death adds another 2%.

Disability prevents people from earning a living

  • Accident or illness will force 1 in 5 U.S. employees to miss work for at least a year before they turn 65.
  • One in 7 of us can expect to be disabled for more than five years.
  • The average long-term disability absence lasts 2½ years.

Few American workers are financially prepared

  • Do you spend more than you earn? 44% of U.S. families do.
  • Do you have private pension coverage? Most of us - over 50% - don't.
  • Retirement savings? One-third of us have none.10 And only 40% of adult Americans have savings earmarked for emergencies.
  • 71% of American employees live from paycheck to paycheck,12 without enough savings to cushion the financial blow.

Think Social Security or Workers' Compensation will cover it

Think again?

  • Can your family live on $1004 a month? That's the average monthly benefit paid by Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
  • More claims are denied than approved. More than half of the 2.1 million workers who applied for SSDI benefits in 2005 were denied. Less than half - 39% - were approved.
  • Only a small fraction - 10% - of disabling accidents and illnesses are work related. The other 90% are not, meaning Workers Compensation doesn't cover them.

Most American workers are not covered by disability insurance

  • Over 100 million workers are without private disability income insurance.
  • 70% of workers in the private sector have no long-term disability insurance