At least 16,000 people fighting for disability benefits died while awaiting a decision (CBS News Report – Disabled And Waiting -  1/14/08).  This is more than 4 times the number of Americans killed in the Iraq war since it began.

During 2007, two-thirds of all applicants that were denied - nearly a million people - simply gave up after being turned down the first time (CBS News Report – Failing The Disabled - 1/15/08)

In 2006 there were 2,134,088 new applications for SSDI benefits and as of October 2007, there have been 1,844,898 new claims.

There are about 1,417,103 total pending cases and out of that number, 154,841 are veterans.

Nationally as of September 2007, over 65% of disability cases were denied at the initial stage of the disability claims process and it took from 101.8 – 113.7 days for claimants to receive the initial decision on their claim.

If a claimant appeals the initial denial asking for reconsideration, in all but 10 test states where the reconsideration phase has been removed, 87.3% of cases were denied and the waiting time for this phase was an average of 90.1 days.   

750,000 are waiting for hearings with an average wait time of 512 days

Two-thirds of those who appeal an initial rejection eventually win their cases (New York Times 12/10/07)