In this paper, we exploit the strong incidence of the Great Recession in Spain toestimate the effect of economic conditions on participation in Disability Insurance (DI).Using individual panel data, we show that increases in the local unemployment rate areassociated with a reduction in the individual probability to enter the DI program duringthe Great Recession in Spain. Using aggregate data on applications, we show that thisprocyclical behavior of DI awards comes from an increase in the proportion of applicationsthat are denied. Thus, contrary to the previous literature that has extensively reporteda countercyclical behavior of DI participation, our results provide new evidence that, inperiods of extremely recessionary conditions, DI participation may turn procyclical.