Overwhelming Majority of U.S. Voters Support SSDI Program

A new poll, conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies, finds the vast majority of likely voters support Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and believe that Congress should target other areas of the government when proposing cuts to balance the federal budget.

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After months of combating unfounded media and political attacks against the SSDI benefits program, the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) commissioned a survey to ask Americans if they believe SSDI should receive budget cuts, or remain intact for hard-working citizens who never expected to experience a disability.

The results - 83% of Americans polled support SSDI, including 75% of Republicans voters, while 77% think Congress should look to cut other programs in order to reach a balanced budget.

"The findings are clear and bipartisan - Americans overwhelmingly support Disability Insurance," said Stefan Hankin , President of Lincoln Park Strategies. "To cut to the chase, my recommendation to elected leaders in either party is that attacking SSDI is a mistake."

Among the key findings of the poll:

• 83% of voters - including 75% of Republicans - agree it would be unfair to cut SSDI benefits to working Americans who have paid into SSDI
• 80% of survey respondents support the SSDI benefits program
• Only 8% of voters polled believe SSDI should be cut
• 77% of those polled agree that Congress should focus on programs other than SSDI to make budget cuts
• 73% support SSDI program after hearing allegations that the program is another government handout program

The poll sampled 1,000 adult Americans who were interviewed by telephone from September 29 - October 2 , 2012.

The error margin for this random probability sample is +/-3.1% at the 95% confidence level. That is to say, if this survey were replicated, the aggregate results would be within this margin in 19 out of 20 cases.

Interviews were conducted with respondents using both landline and mobile telephones.

• Gender breakdown: 471 men were surveyed, 530 women.
• Party ID breakdown:277 Republican, 307 Independent and 348 Democrat.
• Ideological breakdown: 401 Conservative, 351 Moderate and 192 Liberal.

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Lincoln Park Strategies and published on 2012/10/12, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.