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MoodyP's avatar

As a (now retired) attorney with some professional experience with the SSDI system, and some personal experience in applying for SSDI due to a medical condition (and winning a ‘closed period award’ for the length of time the condition prevented me from working) let me add a couple data points.

First, on historical average, only 22% of individuals who file an application ultimately get approved.

Second, on appeal after a claim is denied, about 13% of those who appeal ultimately get approved.

Third, on appeal (after the initial denial, and the 2nd denial) to an Administrative Law Judge about 60% of those who take it to that stage get approved. But, that represents only about 2% of those who made an initial claim. That is because most claims are abandoned before they get to the point where the case is heard by a judge. The process is miserable, demeaning, and the goal of the system is to deny the claim.

Fourth, for the vast majority of those who ultimately get approved, it can take years. From the date I filed my initial claim, until my hearing date, 4 years and 3 months elapsed. 3 more months of waiting for a decision and then after the Judge approved the award, another 5 months elapsed before SSA paid the award. So in total, it took 5 years from the time I filed until I received the award. In addition, I did not file my initial claim until 18 months after the disability occurred. So from the date I became disabled (under the legal definition and based on the court concurrence as to the date disability began), 6.5 years elapsed before I received the award (which was a single lump sum). By that time, my condition had been treated over a period of 3 years and I had been back to work for 2 years.

If you look at the statistics from 2009-17, the % of approvals was trending down. If my recollection is correct, during those years the % approved either stayed flat or declined every year. They rose slightly and/or stayed flat up until 2021 and are now on the rise, as pointed out in the article.

So the point to all of the above is threefold. First, more than 75% of applicants who file a claim are denied. Second, the process is miserable and takes 2 years or more to complete. Third, if indeed those who are attributing the rise to the jab are correct, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. My own personal experience and my legal experience allows me to say with certainty that a high percentage of valid claims are abandoned along the way…because the process itself, and the way lawyers are compensated is designed to deny claims and ultimately force people to give up.

Given the length of time it can take to go through the process, and the massive backlog that exists in nearly every jurisdiction for a hearing before an ALJ, we should expect to see a continued rise in both initial applications and approvals.

A thorough analysis would need to look at historical data for applications, approvals (at the various stages), and the medical conditions for which approvals were granted. The data is all public, although it would take a massive effort to find it, import it, and ultimately analyze it to determine if what we are seeing on the surface can be proven with the historical data.

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TriTorch's avatar

AMD, if you would like someone to analyze the VAERS database for the stroke pokes, I can do that for you. The data is downloadable and importable into a queryable database which allows for extensive analysis of the horrific damage and death caused by the COVID vaccines.

Here is an example of a query I ran for someone last October - they wanted all the COVID entries for the keyword 'nightmare':

http://tritorch.com/degradation/VAERSNightmareEntries.htm

Let me know if this is something you are interested in.

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