Many disability recipients admit they could work

Recipients of federal disability checks often admit that they are capable of working but cannot or will not find a job, that those closest to them tell them they should be working, and that working to get off the disability rolls is not among their goals.

More baffling, most have never received significant medical treatment and not seen a doctor about their condition in the last year, even though medical problems are the official reason they don't work. Those who acknowledge they're on disability because they can't find a job say they make little effort to find one.

Unearned disability, called SSI, is for individuals who have petitioned to be classified as disabled. Many of them have never worked and have never paid into Social Security. Earned disability, or SSDI, is for those who have held jobs for significant periods of time and paid at least partially into Social Security before becoming disabled.

In 2009, the Social Security Administration conducted a detailed study of disability recipients' characteristics, desire to work and their impediments from doing so. The survey included responses from 2,300 disability benefits recipients. There are approximately 11 million SSDI recipients and approximately seven million SSI recipients.

Among the most notable results of the survey:

• Returning to work is not a goal for 71 percent of the SSDI recipients, 60 percent of the SSI recipients.

• 75 percent of the SSDI recipients don't see themselves returning to work within five years, 65 percent of the SSI recipients don't.

• 72 percent of the small number of SSDI recipients who started a job while on disability got cash under the table, as did 70 percent of the small number of SSI recipients who started a job while on disability.

• 24 percent of the SSDI recipients lack even GEDs, as do 43 percent of the SSI recipients.

Unlike welfare, disability isn't term-limited, and in some cases it's become permanent unemployment insurance for the unemployable.