Book excerpt: Disabled persons and their families are among the groups of special concern for any broad program of economic security and social welfare. Income support for permanently and totally disabled workers has been provided under the social security program since 1957. Available at first only for workers aged 50-64 or disabled since childhood, disability benefits were extended in 1960 to younger disabled workers. Experience under this program is beginning to provide substantial information, not hitherto available, about the personal characteristics, family situation, income levels, living arrangements, reliance on public assistance, medical needs and rehabilitation potentials of the disabled. Although the survey data relate to an early stage in the development of the disability benefit program, and to beneficiaries in eight metropolitan areas, the study provides information of greater scope and depth than any hitherto available about severely disabled workers. The analysis is concerned not only with the importance of income support measures in mitigating poverty and insecurity of this group and their families, but also with such questions as the disabled worker's role in the family, and the relation of family situation to their potential for relative independence outside of an institution.