Be the Turtle: How the Turtle and the Hare Help You Win Disability from Social SecurityWhy would anyone want to “be the turtle?” Remember Aesop’s Fable? The turtle and the hare set out to race. 
The hare bounds down the path, through the woods and into a clearing, where he stops to munch the carrots. Filled, he lies down to nap.
Meanwhile, the turtle is plodding along. She overcomes obstacles: branches across the way, streams and dust. The turtle keeps going, over, under, around and through. As the hare wakes, our turtle takes her last step, over the finish line. The turtle is you. Some races on the Social Security Disability Benefits course can be short: About a third of all people (called claimants) applying for disability benefits win with the first decision on their application. Claimants do particularly well if they are persistent in getting everything Social Security needs for their case. (A disability lawyer can help.) But two-thirds of the claimants who apply for social security disability (or who apply for disability from SSI) lose … INITIALLY. What happens? Most claimants, the hares, lie down and snooze. They do not appeal! (The appeal is called reconsideration in most states.) True, the odds are against them: More than 90% of claimants lose at reconsideration. Our turtle – YOU – does not snooze. When you pass (lose) reconsideration, you ask for a disability hearing with a judge. Nationally, you wait – are patient – for 15 months until your hearing. Our turtle – You - persists. Like the turtle in the Turtle and the Hare, you use the 15 months to prepare. You document your case ‘six ways to Sunday.’ You gather information, fill out forms, complete diaries, visit doctors frequently, follow an attorney’s advice.
The Turtle wins. You win. If you are patient, if you are persistent, you could be like the claimants who have a hearing: they win 65% of the time. (And of those who lose and are even more patient and persistent, further appeals can win benefits in many cases.)And so ends the story of the Turtle and the Hare. How does your disability application end? Here are some links to turtle and the hare stories: DTLK's Turtle and the Hare or StoryArts version A game that illustrates how a turtle wins: the Hare and Turtle game or to read more about the game, go here. There are lots of Tortoise and the Hare teaching resources. There is even a very scary post-modern animated retelling of the story with a twisted ending in an online movie.
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