Survey Statistics: Who Is Most Likely to Get Approved for Social Security Disability Benefits?

Does It Matter If I Applied for SSDI or SSI?

While many disability applicants tend to use the terms SSDI and SSI interchangeably, the programs are different, even though the steps used to determine whether you're disabled are the same for both. SSDI eligibility is based on your work history and how much you've paid into the insurance program by way of payroll (FICA) taxes. SSI benefits are available to anyone, regardless of their work history, who has income and assets below a certain (low) threshold.

Most applicants who are eligible for SSDI prefer to get those benefits because they pay more. In 2023, the maximum monthly payment for SSDI is $3,627 (with an average closer to $1,480), while maximum SSI benefits in 2023 are $914.

The downside to the SSDI program is that your eligibility for SSDI can "expire." Your last date of eligibility for SSDI is called the date last insured. SSI doesn't have a date last insured, but even modest earnings or a small amount of assets—$2,000 for one person or $3,000 for a couple—can disqualify you from receiving the benefit.

About half (51%) of readers who applied for SSDI were ultimately approved for benefits, compared to just over a third (36%) of SSI applicants. Our survey pointed to several factors that could account for this difference in outcomes, including the fact that SSI applicants were less likely to hire a lawyer—35% hired a lawyer, compared to 49% of SSDI applicants—and were more likely to be women. We'll take a closer look at some of these factors below.

SSDI Approval Rates

Seven in ten (70%) of our readers were denied for SSDI benefits at the initial application stage. If that seems discouraging, there are a couple of important points to keep in mind. First of all, the number of denials includes people who were turned down for lack of work history or recent work, or because they were still working at the time they applied. According to the Annual Statistical Report for SSDI, for applications filed in 2020, 44% of SSDI applicants receive technical denials. If you look at initial decisions based on medical reasons alone, government data show an approval rate of 41%.

Second, you can appeal a medical denial by requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge (although applicants must request a reconsideration review first). Our survey shows that the chances of getting benefits improve significantly once a judge reviews your case. Of readers who went to a hearing, more than half (55%) were approved for SSDI at that stage of the process—nearly twice as many as those who got approvals at the initial stage. So when applicants who are eligible to request a hearing simply give up or miss the deadline for filing an appeal, they lose a good chance to receive benefits.

For details on the factors that improve your chances at a hearing, see our survey results on the odds of getting benefits after a disability hearing.

SSI Approval Rates

Only one in five (20%) of our readers who applied for SSI successfully made it through both of these initial financial and medical steps. According to the Annual Statistical Report for SSI, in 2020 23% of SSI applications were denied because they didn't meet the financial requirements. Data for the same year show a 38% initial approval rate based only on medical eligibility—considerably higher than for all SSI applications at the application level.

But a denial after an initial application isn't necessarily the end of the process. SSI applicants can appeal a denial by requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge. Once our readers got to the hearing stage, their chances of success more than doubled; more than four in ten (43%) of SSI applicants were approved for benefits after a hearing.

Despite that huge improvement, less than half (47%) of those who were initially denied actually requested a hearing—passing up their best opportunity to receive benefits.

Overall, a little over a third (36%) of our readers who applied for SSI were ultimately approved for benefits.

Applying for Both SSI and SSDI

Some of our readers applied for benefits from both SSI and SSDI at the same time. This is known as "concurrent benefits." Government data for 2021 showed that 9% of those who received disability benefits got concurrent benefits, while 62% received only SSDI and 29% received only SSI.

Applicants might receive concurrent benefits when they've worked enough to qualify for SSDI, but their benefits under that program are so low—probably because they worked intermittently or earned low wages—that they also meet the financial eligibility requirements for SSI (assuming they don't have many assets). When that's the case, and applicants are approved for both programs, their combined benefits may be increased up to the SSI maximum. You can learn more in our article about how concurrent SSDI/SSI benefits work.

Our survey showed that concurrent applications had poorer outcomes than other claims. Only 15% of readers who filed for both programs were approved at the initial application stage, while the approval rate more than doubled (to 36%) at the hearing stage. That's still lower than SSI-only applications and considerably below SSDI-only approval rates.

Why the lower approval rate for concurrent applications? People who apply for benefits from both programs tend to be younger and are more likely to apply when the labor market is poor. This means that concurrent applicants are more likely to be only marginally qualified for disability benefits. And according to a report from Social Security, concurrent applicants are more likely to file for mental conditions (like depression) and musculoskeletal conditions (like back pain) than SSDI-only applicants. These conditions have relatively low rates of approval.