Allsup: unemployment rate increases for people with disabilities in 3Q

People with disabilities continue to experience higher levels of unemployment than those without disabilities. People with disabilities experienced an unemployment rate 73 percent higher than those without disabilities, with third-quarter rates at 13.7 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively, the study finds.

“Allsup Disability Study: Income at Risk” shows that 726,026 people with disabilities applied for Social Security Disability Insurance during the third quarter of 2012, down slightly from the 731,817 who applied for SSDI the previous quarter. The third-quarter figure is less than 2 percent lower compared to third-quarter 2011, when 737,468 applications were filed, the report states.

To date in 2012, nearly 2.2 million individuals who were no longer able to work due to a disability applied for SSDI, the report adds. An estimated 1.8 million SSDI claims are pending with an average cumulative wait time of more than 800 days, according to Allsup’s analysis of the Social Security disability backlog.