Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Overview

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan research and policy organization founded in 1981. It focuses on federal and state fiscal policy and the programs that serve low- and moderate-income people. On Social Security disability policy, CBPP has produced descriptive analyses of DI and SSI enrollment growth, geographic distribution, and benefit adequacy — characteristically framing program statistics to rebut narratives of abuse or unsustainable expansion.

Key Contributions

• Ruffing 2014 — five-factor count-based accounting of DI enrollment growth (population growth, aging, women's LFP, FRA rise, women's catch-up); cross-study reconciliation showing divergent estimates result from methodological differences, not data disagreement.
• Ruffing 2015 — demonstrated that four factors (low education, older age, fewer immigrants, blue-collar industry mix) explain ~85% of cross-state variation in DI/SSI receipt rates; reframed the South/Appalachia pattern as a structural consequence of SSA's vocational eligibility framework.
• Van de Water 2015 — rebuttal to SSA's 2005/2015 NPRM/ANPRM proposals to raise vocational grid age thresholds; argued that health improvements have been concentrated among high earners and do not benefit the grid's target population.

Related

• Kathy A. Ruffing
• Paul N. Van de Water
• Disability Insurance Program
• SSI Children's Program
• Vocational Grid
• DI Growth Decomposition

Sources

• Ruffing 2014 — How Much of the Growth in Disability Insurance Stems From Demographic Changes
• Ruffing 2015 — Geographic Pattern of Disability Receipt Largely Reflects Economic and Demographic Factors
• Van de Water 2015 — The Realities of Work for Individuals with Disabilities