EPI research focuses on the labor force participation of workers with disabilities. Despite strong incentives to stay in the workforce, most people with disabilities who claim benefits are not able to support themselves by working. Though critics sometimes assert that workers with relatively mild impairments leave the workforce to apply for disability benefits, a closer look at the evidence finds little to support this claim. Rather, the observed increase in take-up in recent decades has been due to external factors such as the aging of the large baby boomer cohort and the growing share of women who worked long enough to be insured for benefits—not changes in eligibility standards. If anything, examiners may be rejecting too many applicants rather than too few, as acceptance rates appear to be declining and most denied applicants are never again able to earn a living.