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• Every : 01 second another disabling injury occurs. That's 60 per minute, 85,000+ each day. Surprisingly, more than 90% are NOT work-related.
• Freak accidents are NOT usually the culprit. Back injuries, cancer, heart disease and other illnesses cause the majority of long-term absences.
• In just the past hour, almost 3,000 Americans became disabled. That's 49 every minute.¹
• Over 51 million Americans - 18% of the population - are classified as disabled.²
• Every :01 second another disabling injury occurs in the US. Every four minutes the injury is fatal.¹
• Almost one-third of Americans entering the work force today (3 in 10) will become disabled before they retire.³
• Nearly 7 million workers currently receive Social Security Disability benefits. Almost half are under age 50.4

Disability causes severe financial hardship

How long could you afford to be without a paycheck?

• 350,000 personal bankruptcies every year are blamed on injuries and unexpected illnesses.⁴
• A new Harvard University report reveals that 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007 were due to an inability to pay for medical expenses. ⁵

Disability prevents people from earning a living

• Accident or illness will force 1 in 5 U.S. employees to miss work for at least a year before they turn 65.⁶
• One in 7 of us can expect to be disabled for more than five years. ⁷
• The average long-term disability absence lasts 2½ years.⁸

Few American workers are financially prepared

• Do you spend more than you earn? 44% of U.S. families do.⁹
• Do you have private pension coverage? Most of us - over 50% - don't.
• Retirement savings? One-third of us have none.¹⁰ And only 40% of adult Americans have savings earmarked for emergencies.¹¹
• 71% of American employees live from paycheck to paycheck,¹² without enough savings to cushion the financial blow.

Think Social Security or Workers' Compensation will cover it? Think again.

• Can your family live on $1004 a month? That's the average monthly benefit paid by Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).¹³
• More claims are denied than approved. More than half of the 2.1 million workers who applied for SSDI benefits in 2005 were denied. Less than half - 39% - were approved.¹⁴
• Only a small fraction - 10% - of disabling accidents and illnesses are work related. The other 90% are not, meaning Workers Compensation doesn't cover them. ¹⁵

Most American workers are not covered by disability insurance:

• Over 100 million workers are without private disability income insurance.¹⁶
• 70% of workers in the private sector have no long-term disability insurance.¹⁷

1. National Safety Council, Injury Facts 2008 Ed.
2. US Census Bureau, Nov 2008
3. Social Security Administration, Fact Sheet Jan 31, 2007
4. "Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy," Health Affairs, Feb 2, 2005
5. The American Journal of Medicine, June 4, 2009
6. Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, Nov 2005
7. Commissioners Disability Table, 1998, Health Insurance Association of America, NY Times, Feb 2000
8. Commissioner's Individual Disability Table A
9. Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances 2004
10. Social Security Administration, Fact Sheet 2007
11. Consumer Federation of America national survey by Opinion Research Corp., Feb 2007
12. American Payroll Association, "Getting Paid in America" Survey, 2008
13. Social Security Administration, Fact Sheet 2008
14. Social Security Administration, Office of Disability and Income Security Programs
15. National Safety Council, Injury Facts 2008 Ed.
16. Council for Disability Awareness, Long Term Disability Claims Review, 2005
17. Social Security Administration, Fact Sheet Jan 31, 2007
18. All facts aggregated by the Council for Disability Awareness. see disabilitycanhappen.org