Event: “A Solution to the SSDI Trust Fund Dilemma: Long-Term Modernization with Short-Term Options to Delay Exhaustion”

A Solution to the SSDI Trust Fund Dilemma: Long-Term Modernization with Short-Term Options to Delay Exhaustion

In the absence of reforms, the Social Security Trustees predict that the SSDI Trust Fund will be exhausted in the fourth quarter of 2016; subsequent revenues will be enough to pay only 81 percent of the benefits due. Some potential solutions, such as restricting eligibility, reducing benefit amounts, or allocating a larger share of Social Security payroll taxes to the SSDI Trust Fund are politically problematic. Initiatives to reduce fraud and improve the program's integrity have bipartisan support, but it is uncertain what the actual savings from these initiatives would be, and they seem unlikely to solve the financing problem on their own.

In this briefing sponsored by Mathematica Policy Research and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), disability policy experts David Stapleton (Mathematica) and Edward Lorenzen (CRFB) will describe and discuss long- and short-term policy options, including:

•	Comprehensive modernization of the nation's fragmented disability support system to improve outcomes for people with disabilities and to eventually yield tens of billions in savings for taxpayers every year
•	Near-term reforms, such as addressing program integrity issues and restructuring work incentives, which may complement the modernization effort and delay Trust Fund exhaustion

A new Mathematica issue brief, “A Solution to the SSDI Trust Fund Dilemma: Long-Term Modernization with Short-Term Options to Delay Exhaustion,” provides more information and will be available at the briefing.

Friday, October 23, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (ET)
B-318 Rayburn House Office Building
Craig Thornton, a senior fellow at Mathematica, will moderate the event.

For more information, please contact sbruns@mathematica-mpr.com.