Sue Richardson, a vocational evaluator for Bayaud Industries, a Denver employment workshop for the disabled, says that in her 12 years of professional experience, no disabled person she knows of has received Social Security disability benefits the first time he or she has applied.

Gabriel Scott, who operates Disability Associates Inc. in Colorado wants to change all that.  Scott estimates that 80 percent of the 2.7 million people who apply for Social Security disability benefits nationally each year fail to get them, and most of those people stop trying.  Scott also estimates that hundreds of thousands of those failed applicants could receive benefits if they sought knowledgeable help making their claims.

What most citizens don't know is that Social Security law allows non-attorneys to represent people making disability claims.  "They," meaning SSA, created a career niche, Scott said of his agency.  For the past fourteen years, Scott has been practicing in that niche, but more importantly has crafted a package of handbooks, tapes, compact discs and computer software programs to train others to be non-attorney representatives.

Richardson, who has also had some family experience filing for disability benefits and met the same difficulties as her clients, said a market definitely exists for non-attorney representational services for the disabled.  "As long as the price is reasonable."  Social Security law and Scott's training programs both address the issue of fees.  The law, which Scott's materials closely adhere to, sets a 25 percent cut of a claimant's initial benefit as the maximum fee, capped at $4000 per case.  This fee maximum has recently been increased by SSA to $5,300 per case.

Range of resources

Scott charges $3500 for his all-inclusive Executive training package.  This level of training includes extensive personalized support both by phone and via the Internet.  You'll also be buying a product that can't be replicated.  The course contains exclusive operational training and software designed to bring efficiency to the process of disability representation. 

Scott has his marketing eye on the aging baby-boomer population, but even Social Security Administrator Kenneth Apfel has acknowledged the continually growing market for the expert skills Scott provides within his unique training program.

Need growing rapidly!

In congressional testimony on Oct. 21, 1999, Apfel said about 25 to 35 percent of today's 20 year-olds are projected to become disabled before retirement.  Right now, 9 million people receive Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability benefits.  Social Security Disability Insurance, Scott's target market, is expected to explode over the next ten years. This level of growth would extend the market to 5 percent of the insured Social Security population, up from 3.5 percent now, Apfel said.  

If the above numbers represent only 20 percent of those who apply within a given age group, they suggest that Mr. Scott and his team of highly skilled specialists have hooked into an industry and a job market that offers huge opportunity.   In short, disability advocacy is an entrepreneur's dream.