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.

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%.

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.

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 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.