A comparison of the recovery termination rates of disabled-worker beneficiaries entitled in 1972 and 1985.

This article reports on the final phase of a longitudinal analysis of two cohorts of Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries. The analysis shows that changes in DI program provisions and demographic shifts in the beneficiary population have considerably affected standard recovery termination rates. Several covariates were also found to affect the rates, particularly age and education. Overall, the 1985 cohort has a lower standard recovery termination tendency during the first few years of entitlement. After an attempt was made to define a recovery event for the 1985 cohort to make it comparable to the 1972 cohort, it was found that the termination rate for the 1985 cohort was still lower than the termination rate for the 1972 cohort. These findings suggest that there will be fewer recoveries for beneficiaries who entered the DI program in the late 1980's than for those who came on the rolls earlier.