Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a government-run program that replaces part of your income if you meet its requirements and your disability keeps you from working for at least 12 months. However, less than half of those who apply are approved — and some states see more approval than others.
To assist prospective SSDI applicants, we calculated the Social Security Disability Income approval rates in all 50 states for 2020 and found the easiest and hardest states to get disability benefits approved.
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| Rank | State | 2020 approval rate | 2020 average monthly benefit | % change in approval rate | 2019 approval rate | 2019 rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kansas | 69.7% | $1,228 | 13.7% | 61.3% | 2 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 66.1% | $1,298 | 9.7% | 60.2% | 3 |
| 3 | Wyoming | 60.3% | $1,265 | -4.7% | 63.3% | 1 |
| 4 | Alaska | 59.9% | $1,240 | 22.0% | 49.1% | 18 |
| 5 | Nebraska | 57.4% | $1,182 | 2.8% | 55.8% | 5 |
| 6 | Rhode Island | 54.8% | $1,236 | 0.1% | 54.8% | 6 |
| 7 | North Dakota | 54.4% | $1,176 | -5.9% | 57.8% | 4 |
| 8 | Iowa | 54.1% | $1,198 | 2.1% | 52.9% | 7 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 53.7% | $1,265 | 3.2% | 52.0% | 8 |
| 10 | South Dakota | 52.9% | $1,168 | 2.9% | 51.4% | 10 |
| 11 | Minnesota | 52.8% | $1,248 | 4.3% | 50.7% | 14 |
| 12 | Idaho | 52.1% | $1,232 | 5.5% | 49.3% | 17 |
| 13 | New York | 51.5% | $1,297 | 9.1% | 47.2% | 25 |
| 14 | Montana | 50.6% | $1,190 | 2.3% | 49.4% | 16 |
| 15 | Vermont | 50.3% | $1,186 | -2.6% | 51.6% | 9 |
| 16 | New Jersey | 50.1% | $1,388 | 3.7% | 48.3% | 22 |
| 17 | Utah | 50.0% | $1,257 | 7.3% | 46.6% | 27 |
| 18 | Missouri | 49.8% | $1,223 | -2.7% | 51.1% | 12 |
| 19 | Washington | 49.7% | $1,278 | 8.1% | 46.0% | 29 |
| 20 | Connecticut | 49.7% | $1,308 | 5.5% | 47.1% | 26 |
| 21 | Illinois | 49.6% | $1,275 | 4.8% | 47.3% | 24 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | 49.4% | $1,262 | -2.6% | 50.7% | 13 |
| 23 | Michigan | 49.1% | $1,290 | -2.4% | 50.3% | 15 |
| 24 | Ohio | 48.9% | $1,210 | 2.9% | 47.5% | 23 |
| 25 | Virginia | 48.4% | $1,270 | -0.6% | 48.7% | 20 |
| 26 | Georgia | 48.4% | $1,260 | 12.3% | 43.1% | 33 |
| 27 | Wisconsin | 47.9% | $1,246 | -2.2% | 49.0% | 19 |
| 28 | Louisiana | 47.6% | $1,205 | -7.4% | 51.4% | 11 |
| 29 | Maryland | 46.9% | $1,308 | 10.0% | 42.6% | 35 |
| 30 | Tennessee | 46.6% | $1,227 | 12.5% | 41.4% | 37 |
| 31 | Oregon | 45.8% | $1,245 | 3.1% | 44.4% | 30 |
| 32 | Delaware | 45.7% | $1,348 | 5.0% | 43.6% | 31 |
| 33 | South Carolina | 43.9% | $1,282 | 1.7% | 43.1% | 32 |
| 34 | Arkansas | 43.7% | $1,198 | 1.7% | 43.0% | 34 |
| 35 | Nevada | 42.9% | $1,321 | 16.7% | 36.7% | 47 |
| 36 | Maine | 42.7% | $1,179 | -8.2% | 46.6% | 28 |
| 37 | Colorado | 42.7% | $1,276 | -11.8% | 48.4% | 21 |
| 38 | Hawaii | 42.4% | $1,293 | 1.9% | 41.6% | 36 |
| 39 | California | 42.3% | $1,292 | 3.9% | 40.7% | 39 |
| 40 | New Mexico | 41.8% | $1,190 | 2.9% | 40.6% | 40 |
| 41 | Kentucky | 40.8% | $1,226 | 3.8% | 39.3% | 45 |
| 42 | West Virginia | 40.7% | $1,255 | 1.2% | 40.2% | 41 |
| 43 | Alabama | 40.1% | $1,236 | -3.0% | 41.4% | 38 |
| 44 | Indiana | 39.9% | $1,258 | -0.1% | 40.0% | 42 |
| 45 | North Carolina | 39.2% | $1,257 | -0.9% | 39.6% | 43 |
| 46 | Florida | 39.1% | $1,281 | -0.6% | 39.3% | 44 |
| 47 | Texas | 39.0% | $1,241 | 3.5% | 37.7% | 46 |
| 48 | Mississippi | 38.5% | $1,201 | 5.1% | 36.6% | 48 |
| 49 | Arizona | 37.1% | $1,307 | 6.0% | 35.0% | 49 |
| 50 | Oklahoma | 33.4% | $1,208 | -3.4% | 34.6% | 50 |
The national average of people applying for social security disability insurance (SSDI) claims is only 45.22% in 2020 (excluding December), higher than 44.18% in 2019. The SSDI approval rate increased every year since a low of 39.28% in 2015.
On average, SSDI beneficiaries were awarded $1,257.65 in December 2019. Spouses received $362.14 and children received $390.92 on average. Generally, it takes almost a year before applicants receive approval or denial.
Awards to disabled workers (679,449) accounted for 89% of awards to all disabled beneficiaries (761,481). Payments to disabled beneficiaries totaled almost $11.7 billion in December. The largest category of diagnoses was musculoskeletal system and connective tissue diseases making up 33.6%, which includes osteoporosis, arthritis, fibromyalgia, gout and lupus.
If you can afford private disability insurance, you might want to consider it. The average cost of disability insurance is 1-3% of your annual income, so if you earn $60,000 a year, you might pay between $600 and $1,800 a year. Private disability insurance typically pays out a higher monthly amount than SSDI, and depending on which plan you choose, can cover you for the short and long-term. This way, you’ll have income during an extended SSDI approval time or if you aren’t approved.
However, you need to have private disability insurance in place before you suffer a disability to receive payments. And if you have private disability insurance and SSDI, any payments you receive from SSDI may be deducted from your private disability payments once you’re approved.
Our finder.com calculation of the SSDI approval rate for each state was based on:
for initial SSDI claims based on the Social Security Administration’s State Agency Monthly Workload Data. Our yearly calculations were based on monthly totals for each calendar year. Allowances can refer to either fully or partially favorable determinations.
We calculated the average monthly SSDI benefit based on the amount of disability benefits in current-payment status and the number of beneficiaries receiving disability during December 2019. For our analysis, we looked only at disabled workers who were receiving benefits and excluded spouses and children.
Richard Laycock, Insights editor and senior content marketing manager
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