Disability Determination Services and Social Security Disability Claims

There is an agency in every state that employs disability claims examiners who decide disability claims for Social Security and Medicaid cases for the state. This agency goes by various names. For instance, Florida calls its agency the Division of Disability Determinations (DDD) and California calls it the Disability Determination Service Division (DDSD). New York as well as most other states call the agency Disability Determination Services, or DDS. All states have their own disability determination agencies and some states -- those that have chosen a "decentralized system" -- have several.

The disability determination agency (we call it DDS on this website) is the state-level agency whose basic task is determining the eligibility of disability applicants (claimants) to receive monetary disability benefits or benefits from the state's adult Medicaid program. DDS decides both Social Security Disability (SSD) claims and SSI (Supplemental Security Income) disability claims. DDS is where the question of medical eligibility for disability is resolved at the initial application and reconsideration levels (the first level of appeal in most states except for New York, Pennsylvania, and a few others).

Typically, the vast majority of disability claims evaluated by DDS are denied, requiring disability claimants to have their cases heard by an administrative law judge at a disability hearing before they can be approved for benefits. 

For more information, see our article on how decisions are made at the disability determination agency.