Social Security provides protection against the loss of wages for workers and their families in the case of the death, disability or retirement of the wage earner. Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) is available to workers with disabilities that are expected to last more than a year and prevent the individual from engaging in any substantial gainful activity. Eligible workers and their families can receive monthly cash benefits from the DI program. The DI program is financed through worker payroll taxes contributed to the DI Trust Fund, one of the two trust funds established for Social Security. The other fund is the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund.

• The disability program is an important source of insurance for the 163 million covered workers and their families.
  
  
• Today, a 20 year old worker has a thirty percent chance of becoming disabled before reaching retirement age.
  
  
• At the end of 2009, the Social Security Administration (SSA) disbursed disability benefits to approximately six million disabled workers and two million spouses and children of disabled workers.
  
  
• For the average wage earner with a family, Social Security DI benefits are equivalent to a $414,000 disability insurance policy.
  
  
• For low-wage earners, DI replaces approximately 60 percent of past earnings if the worker is single and 83 percent of earnings if the worker has dependents; for medium-wage earners, the replacement level is approximately 44 percent if single and 66 percent with dependents.
  
  
• In 2009, the average monthly benefit for a disabled worker who has a spouse and children is approximately $1,793.
  
  
• The 2009 Social Security Trustees report indicates that the DI Trust Fund is projected to remain solvent over the next 10 years. The combined OASDI Trust Funds are expected to remain solvent until 2037 and are projected to be sufficient to finance 76 percent of scheduled benefits that year.