I have been practicing since 1993 and have been focusing on Social Security Disability benefits since 2005. Our results speak for themselves. Let's dig into the national numbers.

Every year, the Social Security Administration publishes a chart that shows the percentage of cases that have been awarded and denied benefits at the different levels of the SSD process.

The Initial Application Stage:

The Initial Application stage is the first level at the top of the chart. 64% of applicants were denied benefits and 34% were awarded benefits. This is to be expected, as these numbers have been pretty consistent over the years.

Out of the ~1,250,000 applicants that were denied, only about 500,000 moved on to the next step to request reconsideration. There's a variety of reasons why an applicant wouldn’t continue to the next level. They may not think they have a good enough case, etc. However, it is strongly encouraged to continue their claim if they were denied.

The Reconsideration Level:

The next level is the Reconsideration Level, where the denial rate is even higher at 87%. This is where the SSA will re-review your application, but a different disability examiner will decide whether or not to approve/deny benefits.

If the SSA denies their application again, then the claimant has the opportunity to request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. Out of the ~437,000 claims that get denied at the Reconsideration level, only a little over 300,000 continue to have an ALJ hearing. As we mentioned before, this can be for a variety of reasons. 

The ALJ Hearing Level:

At the Administrative Law Judge Hearing Level, 51% of claims are approved, 42% are denied, and the remaining cases were dismissed. So far statistically, this level has the best likelihood of being awarded benefits.

Out of the ~150,000 that aren’t awarded benefits at this level, only about 78,000 continue to the Appeals Council level. A lot of cases at this level don’t move on to the next level for several reasons. The claimant’s representative doesn’t think it’s a good enough case to win, they don’t have the time/capacity to dedicate to an appeal, etc.

The Appeals Council Level:

The fourth step is the Appeals Council Level, where an attorney will submit a written argument to the Appeals Council. At this level, only 1% of cases are awarded benefits, but 11% win a remand hearing. Those cases will be sent back to the ALJ. That’s about 8,500 claimants that have another opportunity to win benefits that wouldn’t have had the opportunity if the case wasn’t appealed.

It’s worth it to give them that chance at winning their claim.