Disability Belt

Rural America offers much in the way of possibilities and quality of life yet there is a dirty little secret that often goes unacknowledged and is not spoke-of aloud.  

On average - 9.1 percent of working-age people in rural communities are receiving disability benefits.  For many it has become a way of life – frequently spanning generations.  This phenomenon is almost twice the urban rate and 40 percent higher than the national average.  In Appalachia into the Deep South and out into Missouri the rates grow higher.  This is the America that economists refer to as the Disability Belt - where one of every six individuals is reliant-upon social security disability benefits.    

In some rural communities you’ll observe inter-generational households - not just two but three generations - multi-generational households of younger grandparents, parents and grandchildren living together.  The families do not separate because the culture of disability has become a source of income and a way of life.  

This Washington Post report on a family’s reliance upon federal disability checks is disturbing inasmuch as they pray for an autism diagnosis for the fourth generation little boys and the restoration of $1,128 of monthly benefits.  Ugh.

You can read more about this here and here too.

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