Students with disabilities may have concerns about financing secondary education because SSI won’t provide them with enough livable support after education. Employment during schooling may also seem discouraging due to the risk of reducing their SSI benefits. However, there are ways that people with disabilities can finance postsecondary education and retain all or some of their benefits.

SSI and Post-Secondary Education

The SSI program supports many disabled members in various age groups; for instance,  4.8 million adults between 18-64 years old are being accounted for by said program. Of those, 1.3 million are concurrent beneficiaries.

University of Notre Dame

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

The SSDI program is the largest disability program in the United States with projected provisions for the 2020-2029 term being roughly $1.8 trillion. Provisions are given those qualified for social security due to their jobs and who are considered disabled under the Social Security Act.

Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) Program

Weaver, D. A. (2020). Social Security disability benefits: Characteristics of the approved and denied populations. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 32(1), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1044207320933538 

Social Security Disability Benefits: Characteristics of the Approved and Denied Populations

Weaver's paper aims to compare the SSI and Social Security Disability Programs, specifically how federal support compares between approved and denied applicants for such programs (as well as other beneficiaries and the general population). The paper aims to discuss the use of survey data in the 2013 SIPP Panel that helps identify populations denied such benefits.(Survey data is less reliable than the administrative data but the latter is not often made publicly available and can have implications of future research and studies.)

Weaver's Study on Social Security Disability Benefits

The OASI program provides further aid for disabled widowers and disabled adult children as part of Social Security.

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