Can you get disability the first time you apply in North Carolina?

by Tim Moore. Free Case Evaluation here.

It is possible to get disability the first time you apply for disability in North Carolina. Since at least the 1990s, when I first worked as a disability claims examiner for Social Security (and then later became a Disability Representative for claimants), roughly 3 out of 10 people who applied for SSD or SSI were approved on their initial claim, i.e. disability application. However, the flip side of this is that 70 percent of claims were denied.

Note: if you need help with a disability claim, contact us at 919-890-8519.

Even worse, the first appeal, the reconsideration, has an even higher denial rate, more than 80 percent. So, yes, you can be approved the the first, but the odds are against you. That said, if you do the first appeal, the reconsideration, and then file the second appeal after that, the request for hearing, your chances of being approved go up substantially.

This is what I tell my prospective new clients if they haven’t applied yet. File the first claim (which we help them with by setting up a phone interview appt) with the knowledge that it will likely be denied. File the first appeal with the same knowledge. The goal is to get to the disability hearing where we can present evidence supporting the claim and an argument for approval based on Social Security law.

Now, if the claim is initially approved, those last two steps will not become an issue. Unfortunately, for most people, they are and knowing can help a person prepare for the wait ahead.

How long does the whole process take?

Social Security may may take 3-4 months to decide the application, and then another two months to decide the reconsideration appeal. After those two steps, we request the hearing and that will take several months to get scheduled. It can happen as quickly as five months. However, the total time required is at least a year.