The 26th Annual Meeting of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium
The Social Security Administration (SSA) convened its 2024 Retirement and Disability Research Consortium (RDRC) Meeting in Washington, DC on August 7–9. The meeting featured research funded through the NBER RDRC as well as through RDRCs based at Boston College, the City University of New York, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin.
Martin O’Malley, Commissioner of the SSA, provided welcoming remarks highlighting that “RDRC researchers help build the evidence base to better understand who our agency serves and to better inform national debates on the future of retirement and disability policies. So, the work that [the RDRC does] really supports the decisions within the SSA and within Congress to meet the changing needs of the American public.”
Building on remarks at the 2023 conference by former Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi, O’Malley noted that the SSA is engaged in a “customer service crisis” in three primary areas: “The interminable, way too long wait and hold times on our 1-800 number, the growing backlog for disability determinations where in fact today 30,000 people die awaiting their initial determination — more than ever before in the history of that program — and then the third area is the overpayments and the underpayments…”. O’Malley extended his appreciation for RDRC researchers’ “…help in raising awareness and educating not only the public but also their elected representatives about what’s at stake and the truth that we can actually fix and solve [these] problems.”
He concluded by requesting that the RDRCs continue to “advance our knowledge base, train new scholars, and provide input to the policymaking process.”
Researchers affiliated with the NBER RDRC presented the following research findings:
In Panel 2: Advancing Equity through Structural Barriers Research, Danielle Dickens presented findings from “Perceived Impact of Race/Gender on Black Women’s Retirement.”
Social Security is essential, especially for Black women, who face gendered racism and ageism as well as wealth and pay gaps. Historically, in the US, retirement favored White people because agricultural and domestic workers were excluded from Social Security old age pensions (Quadagno 1984), and Black families generally did not have the same financial assets as Whites (Oliver and Shapiro 2013). Moreover, one study found that Black women are significantly less likely to retire compared to White men (Hogan and Perrucci 2007). Black women are disadvantaged in both employment and retirement income because, like Black men, they lack access to the resources and family wealth of many Whites (Bielby and Bielby 1992). Additionally, one study found that older Black women in retirement were unable to find suitable and affordable housing (Perkins 1994). Despite these inequities, Black women can successfully and financially prepare themselves for retirement. Though studies have explored the retirement experiences of Black women, few studies have qualitatively explored Black women’s experiences with retirement from a psychosocial perspective. The findings of this research can be used to inform policymakers regarding retirement preparation and planning for Black women.
In the same panel, Wendy M. Edmonds discussed research on “Exploring Barriers to the Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income Programs Participation for the Visually Impaired Community,” coauthored with LaTanya Brown-Robertson.
According to the National Institutes of Health-National Eye Institute, there are over 825,000 Black/African American people who have diabetic retinopathy. The number is expected to increase to more than 1 million by 2030. While this does not include other causes for visual impairment among the Black/African American population, the number is staggering (Ou 2021). Individuals living with a visual impairment encounter challenges navigating daily tasks, even those that may otherwise seem simple. Additionally, remaining employed may not be an option. However, understanding how to apply for monthly compensation can lead to anxiety and depression. Understanding the application process can be daunting and time-consuming. Therefore, applicants seek help from other establishments to support their efforts. Furthermore, the literature describing how to serve visually impaired citizens better remains minimal. This research explores the specific case of Prince George’s County, Maryland, by (1) reviewing existing literature on the effects of visually impaired people’s access to community resources and services, (2) conducting focus groups and/or interviews to explore the specific barriers that the visually impaired community contends with in completing the application process for Social Security disability benefits, and (3) mentoring student research assistants from the oldest historically black college and university in the state of Maryland, Bowie State University.
In Panel 5: Let’s Ask Them: Barriers to Program Access, Isaac Marcelin reviewed highlights from “Improving Recipiency in US Social Insurance: A Scoping Examination.”
Poverty among individuals with disabilities continues because of insufficient resources, inadequacies in social protection schemes, low benefit levels, limited enrollment, and implementation barriers (Baptista and Marlier 2022). Social safety net programs offer income to older adults, individuals with disabilities, families, and survivors, but participation depends on eligibility and take-up. Enrollment in Disability Insurance (DI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is lower than projected. This study seeks to identify factors limiting the take-up rates for DI and SSI, comparing recipiency in OECD programs to those in the US to explore potential reforms. It also examines whether race, gender, age, location, and religion influence access to the safety net. The study analyzes how these programs function during economic fluctuations and their financial impacts on eligible individuals. It mainly focuses on the challenges faced by those with long-term disabilities and their efforts to meet basic needs and acquire skills for labor market success, challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated.
In Panel 6: Places Matter, Dayo Oyeleye presented findings from “Assessing Underserved Communities Beneficiaries’ Communication Needs and Its Influence on Customer Experience and Satisfaction.”
The SSA achieved the highest score of any government agency on the Center for Plain Language’s 2022 Federal Plain Language Report Card (e.g., SSA 2023). The Center evaluated 21 executive branch agencies, including all 15 cabinet-level departments, and graded each between an A+ and F- for writing quality and organizational compliance. The SSA received an A+ for organizational compliance and an A for writing quality. However, results from a 2022–2023 SSA-funded research project (NB23-12) indicate that beneficiaries in underserved and Black communities would prefer to receive SSA benefits information in “plain” language. Existing literature on “plain” language has not disaggregated findings by race or focused strictly on Black people. This project seeks to elicit Black people’s understanding of what it means to communicate in “plain” language by examining whether the Center for Plain Language’s 2022 Federal Plain Language Report Card ratings are consistent with the reality of Black people from underserved communities. This mixed methods project provides policymakers with some tangible approaches to improve service delivery, communication, and outreach with the goal of reducing racial and ethnic disparities in retirement preparedness and wealth more generally.
In Panel 10: Intended & Unintended Consequences of Reforms, Emilia Simeonova presented research on “Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance Utilization by American Indians and Alaska Natives — the Effects of Medicaid Expansions and Long COVID,” coauthored with Randall Akee.
According to self-reports in the American Community Survey, participation of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) individuals in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is twice as high as that of the rest of the population. The year-on-year increase in SSI among single-race AIANs has also been the highest since the turn of the century. Little is known about the determinants of SSI and Social Security Disability Insurance in the AIAN population. The interaction between health, public health insurance eligibility and generosity, and participation in social insurance programs is not well understood in this population. Public policy changes and external shocks, such as the disparate effects of the COVID pandemic on health status across race, are particularly likely to affect utilization of the safety net by socially and economically disadvantaged groups such as rural AIAN populations. The researchers use Medicaid and Medicare data spanning the years 1999–2021 to examine the determinants and trends in utilization of SSI and SSDI among eligible American Indians. Their data include Medicaid and Medicare demographic and utilization files for all American Indians as well as a 1-in-5 sample for all others.
Also in Panel 10, Marema Gaye presented highlights from “Barriers to Income/Health Support among Adults with Disabilities,” coauthored with David M. Cutler, Ellen Meara, and Rand Obeidat.
Applications for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) have been declining over the last 15 years. Total applications received by local SSA field offices increased from 1.2 million in 2000 to 2.8 million in 2010 but began declining in 2011 and fell to 2.0 million by 2019. SSDI awards also rose from nearly 700,000 in 2000 to over 1 million in 2010, then declined to 630,000 by 2019. Several factors may explain this decline. Starting in 2010, the SSA Appeals Council made efforts to streamline decisions made at the hearing level by administrative law judges (Maestas 2019 and Ray and Lubbers 2014), which may have contributed to more consistent approval rates at the appeals level. Additionally, a wave of SSA field office closures between 2000 and 2014 led to a 10 percent drop in applications and a 16 percent decrease in new awards in areas with an office closure (Deshpande and Li 2019), and office closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the potential barriers at the initial application stage. The impact of these changes on the racial and ethnic composition of SSDI applicants and awardees and the area-level characteristics of new awardees remains unclear. This study uses publicly available data from SSA and data on new SSDI enrollees from Medicare enrollment files to answer two questions: (1) How have outcomes of SSDI applications changed over time and along each decision-making point (or adjudicative level) in the application process? (2) do changes in application outcomes impact the composition of new SSDI awardees?
In Panel 11: The Legacy of COVID-19, Michael Stepner presented findings from “Effects of COVID on Disparities by Race and Income,” coauthored with Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and John Friedman.
What are the medium-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on racial and income gaps in mortality rates and life expectancy, and what has caused these changes? Previous work (e.g., Aburto et al. 2022, Alsan et al. 2021, Andrasfay and Goldman 2021) documents large disparate effects of the pandemic on mortality by race and income, especially in comparison to a pre-pandemic trend of shrinking racial mortality gaps. Recent estimates show that mortality rates climbed even higher in 2021 than they had in 2020 (Xu et al. 2022). Now that the large waves of COVID-19 have passed and most of the population is vaccinated, the researchers study how disparities in mortality changed in 2021 and 2022. The study uses the combination of IRS tax records and US Census data (accessed via the US Census Bureau), which crucially include direct measures of both race and income. It examines the medium-term effects of COVID-19 on mortality rates and period life expectancy and documents differences by race and income. The study then exploits variation in these effects across areas in the US — both between and within metro areas — to understand the drivers of the medium-term patterns. The researchers estimate the trend break in racial and ethnic convergence of mortality rates in 2020 and measure whether 2021 and 2022 exhibit convergence or divergence. They then apply updated methods from Chetty et al. (2022) (RDRC NB22-06) to estimate these statistics using Census data. The study then explores heterogeneity in racial convergence by geography and age to characterize where and how racial convergence in life expectancy was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also assesses policies that could further racial convergence. By examining the determinants of remaining gaps, the researchers explore what policies or policy areas seem most likely to close racial gaps in mortality rates and life expectancy that emerged during the pandemic and to continue the pre-pandemic trend of racial convergence.
A complete agenda with summaries includes information on all of the other papers that were presented at the conference.
The research reported herein was performed pursuant to grant RDR23000006 from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement and Disability Research Consortium. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent the opinions or policy of SSA, any agency of the Federal Government, or NBER. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the contents of this report. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.
