How to Apply

You should apply at any Social Security office as soon as you become disabled. (You may file by phone, mail, or by visiting the nearest office). However, Social Security disability benefits will not begin until the sixth full month of disability. This waiting period begins with the first full month after the date we decide your disability began.

How to Speed Up Your Claim

The claims process for disability benefits is generally longer than for other types of Social Security benefits from 60 to 90 days. It takes longer to obtain medical information and to assess the nature of the disability in terms of your ability to work. However, you can help shorten the process by bringing certain documents with you when you apply and helping us to get any other medical evidence you need to show you are disabled. These include:

• The Social Security number and proof of age for each person applying for payments. This includes your spouse and children, if they are applying for benefits.
• Names, addresses, and phone numbers of doctors, hospitals, clinics, and institutions that treated you and dates of treatment.
• Names of all medications you are taking.
• Medical records from your doctors, therapists, hospitals, clinics, and caseworkers.
• Laboratory and test results.
• A summary of where you worked in the past 15 years and the kind of work you did.
• A copy of your W-2 Form (Wage and Tax Statement), or if you are self-employed, your federal tax return for the past year.
• Dates of prior marriages if your spouse is applying.

Do not delay filing for benefits just because you do not have all of the information you need. The Social Security office will be glad to help you.

Who Decides If You Are Disabled?

After helping you complete your application, the Social Security office will review it to see if you are eligible to apply for disability benefits. These include such factors as whether you have worked long enough and recently enough to qualify for disability benefits, your age, and, if you are applying for benefits as a family member, your relationship to the worker. The office will then send your application to the Disability Determination Services (DDS) office in your state. There, a decision will be made as to whether you are disabled under the Social Security law.

In the DDS office, a team consisting of a physician (or psychologist) and a disability evaluation specialist will consider all the facts in your case and decide if you are disabled. They will use the medical evidence from your doctors and from hospitals, clinics, or institutions where you have been treated. Again, the quicker we get the evidence, the faster your claim will be processed. This is why we suggest you bring any copies of your medical reports you have with you. You should also be sure to contact the doctors and treatment facilities to let them know we will be requesting medical evidence in your case.

On the medical report forms, your doctors or other sources are asked for a medical history of your condition:

• What is wrong with you;
• When it began;
• How it limits your activities;
• What the medical tests have shown; and
• What treatment has been provided.

They are also asked for information about your ability to do work-related activities, such as walking, sitting, lifting, and carrying. They are not asked to decide whether you are disabled.

Additional medical information may be needed before the DDS team can decide your case. If it is not available from your current medical sources, you may be asked to take a special examination called a consultative examination. Your doctor or the medical facility where you have been treated is the preferred source to perform this examination. Social Security will pay for the examination or any other additional medical tests you may need, and for certain travel expenses related to it.

Social Security's rules for determining disability differ from those in other government and private programs. However, a decision made by another agency and the medical reports it obtains may be considered in determining whether you are disabled under Social Security rules.

Once a decision on your claim is reached, you will receive a written notice from the Social Security Administration. If your claim is approved, the notice will show the amount of your benefit and when payments start. If it is not approved, the notice will explain why.

How We Determine Disability

You should be familiar with the process we use to determine if you are disabled. It's a step-by-step process involving five questions. They are:

1. Are you working? If you are and your earnings average more than $700 a month, you generally cannot be considered disabled.
2. Is your condition severe? Your impairments must interfere with basic work-related activities for your claim to be considered.
3. Is your condition found in the list of disabling impairments? We maintain a list of impairments for each of the major body systems that are so severe they automatically mean you are disabled. If your condition is not on the list, we have to decide if it is of equal severity to an impairment on the list. If it is, your claim is approved. If it is not, we go to the next step.
4. Can you do the work you did previously? If your condition is severe, but not at the same or equal severity as an impairment on the list, then we must determine if it interferes with your ability to do the work you did in the last 15 years. If it does not, your claim will be denied. If it does, your claim will be considered further.
5. Can you do any other type of work? If you cannot do the work you did in the last 15 years, we then look to see if you can do any other type of work. We consider your age, education, past work experience, and transferable skills, and we review the job demands of occupations as determined by the Department of Labor. If you cannot do any other kind of work, your claim will be approved. If you can, your claim will be denied.

Rules for Blind Persons

You are considered blind under Social Security rules if your vision cannot be corrected to better than 20/200 in your better eye, or if your visual field is 20 degrees or less, even with a corrective lens.

There are a number of special rules for persons who are blind. The rules recognize the severe impact of blindness on a person's ability to work. For example, the earnings limit for people who are blind is generally higher than the $700 limit that applies to non-blind disabled workers. This figure changes annually. For current figures and other information on special rules for persons who are blind, ask for the leaflet If You Are Blind...How We Can Help (Publication No. 05-10052).

If Your Claim Is Denied

If your claim is denied or you disagree with any other decision we make, you may appeal the decision. The Social Security office will help you complete the paperwork.

There are four levels of appeal. If you disagree with the decision at one level, you may appeal to the next level. You have 60 days from the time you receive the decision to file an appeal to the next level. We assume that you receive the decision five days after the date on it, unless you can show us that you received it later. For more information about appeals, ask for the factsheet, The Appeals Process (Publication No. 05-10041).

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Social Security Administration
SSA Publication No. 05-10029
May, 1996
ICN 456000