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By Omar Mohammed
Reporter, Economy & Finance
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The number of disabled workers who received Social Security benefits fell by about 20,000 in May compared to the prior month, data from the Social Security Administration revealed.
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There were 7.25 million disabled workers who were beneficiaries of Social Security benefits in April. In May, that number ticked down slightly to about 7.23 million. In percentage terms, it was unchanged between the months with both May and April having about 11 percent of recipients being disabled workers. Those workers received on average about $1,540 a month in support from the government.
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It was not immediately clear why the number of disabled workers who are recipients of benefits from the agency fell in May.
Newsweek contacted the Social Security Administration for comment via email on Friday.
"I don't know for certain, but I would imagine it's a combination of people being moved from disability to retirement benefits, people passing away, or people no longer qualifying for benefits," Burt Williamson, a retirement specialist with PlanPrep, told Newsweek. "The latter of the three is probably the least likely."
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In the past, those who received benefits as disabled workers had their benefits terminated typically if they fit into any four categories set out by the agency.
"Conversion to the retirement program (that is, attainment of full retirement age), death, medical recovery, and work recovery. In addition, benefits to disabled widow(er)s and disabled adult children can be terminated for marriage or for entitlement to a larger benefit," the agency noted.
Meanwhile, there could be different ways of judging whether benefits were terminated in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
"For blind and disabled adults in the SSI program, there is no conversion to the aged category at age 65; the disability designation continues although medical recovery is no longer an issue after the age of 65. There is no termination for substantial gainful activity in the SSI program," the SSA has said.
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The agency added: "SSI disabled children are subject to a redetermination at the age of 18, during which an assessment is made as to whether they meet adult disability standards. Nearly one in three SSI children is terminated at the age of 18 for not meeting the adult standards."
Looking at the overall data from the agency, May saw more people come into the benefits program, with the increase seemingly coming from those who receive retirement benefits.
There was a total of 72.35 million beneficiaries of support from the agency in May, an uptick from April's 72.23 million. Social Security benefits alone made up about 65 million recipients last month, with about 4.9 million who got Supplemental Security Income. Those that got both came to 2.5 million.
The prior month, the beneficiaries of Social Security were at 64.8 million, SSI recipients were at 4.92 million and both came out to 2.5 million.
Update 6/14/24, 5:10 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Williamson.
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