Surprising Facts about Social Security Disability

This is a blog about Social Security Disability and VA Service Connected Compensation.  It’s intended to be well-meaning and is most often based on personal history and well-developed expertise in these fields.  Though we are covering surprising Social Security facts, this is also a blog written to inform and provide a perspective beyond the clear cut data.

The basis of perspective is seeing the way Social Security facts play out in stories.  Clients’ stories and my own.  Most blog posts seek to provide perspective while providing little factual citation to support surprising insights.  This article does the opposite.  It provides surprising Social Security Facts facts you may not realize with source material to back it up.  And how these facts they can inform you in your decision about pursuing a claim for SSDI.

The average recipient of SSDI receives about $1,165 per month in financial compensation.

This is significantly less than the average wage-earning income.  But certainly more than the alternative of not being able to earn a wage.  We discussed this more in depth in the article, How Much will I make on Disability?

We didn’t cover the compensation gap, though.  Men earn, on average about$300 more than women on SSDI.  The income gap is similar to the wage gap in general employment.  Disparities in systems tend to become magnified in situations like this.  A $/hr difference in employment leads to large differences in support benefits.

12.5% of workers will become disabled for five years or more during their careers.

That’s one in eight.   No one believes physical or mental health injuries will afflict them, but the facts don’t bear this out.  Most people rate their chance of needing to pursue something like SSDI at around 2%.   The reality is that for someone coming into the workforce, the likelihood of needing to pursue this benefit is around 25%.

 If you’d like to know your own likelihood of becoming injured or ill and unable to work prior to retirement, this is a calculator created by the Council for Disability Awareness.

The spectrum of disabling injuries is broader than you may think.

While bone and tissue injuries make up the greatest percentage, they are not the majority of SSDI claims.  Grouped together the following conditions account for 60% of all disabling conditions for recipients of Social Security Disability.

Cancer

Poisoning

Mental Health Conditions

Cardiovascular conditions  

 

Your best bet is to stay in the fight!

In the article, Here are your Real Chances in Getting your Social Security Claim Approved, we covered your chances of achieving a favorable outcome in pursuing a disability (SSDI) claim.  We broke down your chances at each level of a claim.  We also covered what happens when/if you need to appeal.   You may recall that the overall claims success rate rises when you stay in the fight.

The best way to stay in the fight is to make sure you have an attorney who knows these Social Security Facts.  They need to know Social Security Disability backward and forwards and have a system in place to effectively advocate your claim.

If you are one of the 70% that will get that dreaded denial letter from your initial claim for SSI or SSDI, you should seek a (free) consultation from someone who knows how to keep you in the fight.  

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