Most people have heard the old adage that ” everyone gets denied at first” when applying for Government Disability—more correctly called Social Security Disability (SSD.) This is not actually correct.
The actual nationwide denial rate is around 65% for the first application… meaning you have a 35% chance of winning the case by simply filing an application for benefits.
Obviously the odds are against you in the beginning.
The GOOD NEWS is that on appeal, the 65% goes the other way: 65% of cases that have been appealed then result in an award. (Nationwide average.) The bad news : Appeals take up to a year and a half to be heard!
(Interestingly, the fees that are payable to attorneys are based upon the retroactive number of months and the amount of retroactive payments that are recovered. The more retroactive money recovered, the closer the attorney can get to receiving the maximum fee which is usually $6000. This means many attorneys won’t even TAKE a case at the application stage because there won’t be enough retroactive money if they win right away!)
We have filed MANY applications for disabled clients that are accepted IMMEDIATELY without having to appeal and/or go in front of a SSD Judge!
Feel free to call us if you know someone who plans to file a Social Security Disability!
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