I think there is some mass confusion here about what happens with the FICA/OASDI taxes that are withheld from paychecks from the time a person starts working until the day they qualify for either retirement or disability benefits or the day their dependents qualfiy for survivor benefits. The payroll taxes paid through your employer are not sitting in a bank account or investment account marked "John or Jane Smith" nor are any monthly benefit amounts officially computed at any date before it is decided that you meet the requirements including a finding of disability. Neither is there a "lockbox" in which the federal government is holding all of the FICA/OASDI taxes.

What you earn is really an IOU. The federal government has taken the taxes you paid and used them to pay out other beneficiaries and will use payroll taxes paid by your children and neighbors to pay your benefits AFTER it is decided that you are either old enough for retirement or sick enough for disability. And they have borrowed it to pay for other federal programs. So it is totally incorrect that "your" money is sitting in an investment account earning interest for SSA. There are plenty of articles about the potential involvency in SSA in this century.

SSA was a great deal for today's seniors; is an okay deal for the boomers, and not such a good deal for the X generation if you look at the money coming from taxes in as compared to the benefits being paid or expected to be paid.

And although it is true that 60% of the claims are denied on the initial level, it also is true that 35%-40% are approved without any appeal. And those denials include the claims that almost everyone who posts on these boards would agree should be denied, if they could read the history.