Social Security Releases 2015 Statistics on Disabled Beneficiaries

Posted January 15, 2016 by Premier Disability Services, LLC® The Social Security Administration (SSA) has released an updated data table detailing disabled worker beneficiary statistics by the calendar year, quarter, and month.  With 2015 fully complete, we can now analyze how last year compared to prior years in regards to disability applications, awards, and terminations of benefits.

The number of applications for Social Security Disability benefits actually decreased from 2,521,459 in 2014 to 2,412,267 in 2015.  Unfortunately, the number of awards also decreased for the fifth straight year.  The number of beneficiaries in current payment status saw a slight dip.  What was most interesting about this table was the data related to terminations.  Terminations were defined by SSA as the number of beneficiaries who leave the disability rolls for any reason.  The number of terminations increased for the twelfth straight year.  Notably, the termination rate was the highest it has been since before 2001.  What this seems to suggest is that SSA is putting more resources into continuing disability reviews.

If you would like to review this data, the table can be found using the following link: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/dibStat.html