Personal Finance

SSDI: Easiest States to Secure Approval for Your Disability Application

Oklahoma is in fifth place, with a 63.41 percent approval rate, and 92,470 people receive disability benefits there.

SSDI: It is hard to understand and takes a lot of time to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). At different points of the application process, the national acceptance rate changes.

SSDI: Easiest States to Secure Approval for Your Disability Application

In 2022, only about 35% of the first applications were accepted. That number rose to 54% at the court hearing stage, which is the second and generally final appeal.

However, the acceptance rates are very different between states because of things that are unique to each state.

Even though SSDI and SSI are federal programs, they are reviewed and appealed at the state or local level.

Disability Determination Services (DDS) in each state decide who is medically eligible. As a result, medical acceptance rates vary from 30% in Washington, D.C., to 51% in New Hampshire.

After the first application, the first stage of appeal is called “reconsideration.” In this stage, the rate of doctor approval varies from 11% in Colorado to 26% in New Hampshire.

In the second step of an appeal, there is a court hearing. The national approval rate is 54%, but there are big differences between states. For example, Hawaii’s approval rate is only 22%, while New Mexico’s is 54%.

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Which states make it the easiest to get disabled benefits?

By December 2023, some U.S. states will stand out for having very high acceptance rates for disability benefit applications. This will show how complicated the Social Security process is.

Oklahoma is in fifth place, with a 63.41 percent approval rate, and 92,470 people receive disability benefits there.

Hawaii comes in at number four with a 64.83 percent approval rate, showing that it consistently does a great job of funding and supporting disability healthcare.

After that comes North Carolina in third place.

It gets a 65.45% approval rate and helps 216,834 residents get disability payments.

With a 66.06 percent satisfaction rate, Oregon comes in second place, helping 83,654 people. While this is going on, Puerto Rico, which is not a state but does give disability payments to 1,145,990 U.S. citizens who live there, has the highest approval rate at 66.91 percent.

Tarique Anwer

Tarique Anwer is a finance writer, editor, and digital publishing professional with a background in banking and financial services. Before entering the media industry, he worked at Bank of America in online fraud operations, gaining firsthand experience with banking systems, financial processes, and consumer financial services. Today, Tarique writes about personal finance, banking, retirement benefits, government programs, consumer technology, and business trends. His goal is to translate complex financial and technical topics into clear, practical guidance that helps readers navigate important decisions with confidence. With an MBA and more than a decade of experience in digital media, journalism, and content leadership, Tarique brings both industry knowledge and editorial expertise to his work.

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