Aching to retire?

"In 1983 the federal government passed legislation that gradually increases the age at which individuals can receive full social security retirement benefits from 65 to 67 and reduces the generosity of benefits available at the early retirement age of 62. No corresponding changes were made to social security disability insurance (DI) benefits. This increase in the full retirement age will substantially increase individuals' financial incentives to apply for DI benefits. In this paper we use administrative data from the Social Security Administration to estimate the effect of this change on DI enrollment. Our findings indicate that the policy has contributed to the recent growth in the disability rolls with the effect concentrated among 63 and 64 year old men. When the policy is fully implemented, our estimates suggest that DI enrollment for this group of near elderly men will increase by 1.6 percentage points (13 percent). The overall effect would be modest, however, as it would account for just 1.3 percent of total DI enrollment and offset less than 4 percent of the estimated budgetary savings that will result from increasing the full retirement age"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.