Winning Disability Benefits Is an Uphill Battle
Social Security doesn’t grant disability benefits easily:
- 3.5 million Americans applied for benefits in 2017.
- 762,141 people were awarded Social Security Disability income.
- That’s a tough approval rate of 22%.
What about in Indianapolis and Indiana?
Most people who apply for disability anywhere are denied on the first try, and have to start an appeal.
A key step in appealing is taking your case to an administrative law judge (ALJ). In different locations, judges have different approval rates:
- Indianapolis judges awarded benefits 3,264 times from September 2017 to September 2018.
- That was an approval rate of about 46% out of all cases.
- Across Indiana, judges approved benefits 47% of the time as of early 2018.
If you’re wondering where you might stand, Hanley Disability will provide an initial consultation for FREE.
How Can You Improve Your Odds of Winning Disability Benefits?
To successfully apply for disability benefits, you need to submit thorough and correct forms. You also need to provide medical evidence and other records proving that you can’t work. And you need to meet deadlines.
You can make sure your application or appeal is strong if you work with a professional disability representative.
In fact, at the level of a hearing with a judge, a government report found that your chances of winning benefits is almost three times higher when you have a representative.
Maybe you’ve never gone through this process before. But at Hanley Disability, we do it every day.