Thousands of Indiana residents apply for Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits each year, and most of their applications are denied. These programs were put into place to help Americans make ends meet when they are unable to work because of a disability, but only about a third of the applications submitted to the Social Security Administration are accepted during the initial approval process. When denied applicants ask the SSA or their state’s Disability Determination Services to reevaluate their claims, about 90% of them are rejected again.
Some states approve more claims than others
Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance are federal programs, which means the process for evaluating claims should be the same in every state. Despite this, approval rates vary greatly from state to state. In Alaska, 65% of the disability claims submitted in 2022 were approved. In the District of Columbia, the approval rate was just 30%.
The approval rates in Indiana
The Social Security Disability Insurance approval rates in Indiana are broadly in line with national averages. About 35% of the claims submitted in the Hoosier State are approved during the initial evaluation process, and approximately 11% of the denied applications are approved after being reevaluated. When denied applicants request disability hearings, the disability approval rate in Indiana rises to 53%.
Approval rates should be consistent
Social Security Disability Insurance approval rates should be consistent across the country because the same evaluation process is used in every state, but they are not. If you apply for disability benefits in Indiana, data from the SSA suggests that your application will have about a 35% chance of being approved during the first step of the process. If you lived in another part of the country, that figure could be as high as 65% or as low as 30%.