How to Win a Social Security Disability Claim Faster

Winning disability benefits in the Social Security disability or SSI disability program can make the difference between staying afloat and going financially down the tubes. For those whose savings and possessions are on the line (many claimants lose their entire savings, are forced to sell possessions, and even find themselves at risk of eviction or foreclosure), winning disability benefits faster is crucial to the goal of staying out of the financial abyss.

A claimant can speed up the processing of their disability claim by doing the following:

Listing in detail on the disability application ALL sources of medical treatment, along with the names of the doctors who have provided treatment, the addresses of hospitals and clinics that have been visited, and the dates of treatment for each facility. The disability examiner should also have access to a claimant's records as far back as possible to ensure that the claimant can receive the maximum amount of benefits for which they are entitled.

Provide copies of medical records with the application for disability. The vast majority of the time spent "processing" a disability claim is simply waiting for medical records to be received. Disability examiners cannot make a decision on a disability claim until the medical records are actually received. And many hospitals and clinics are notorious for the long amount of time they take to honor medical record requests. By sending in your medical records at the time you apply for disability, you can potentially shave weeks or even months off the time your disability case may take.

Keeping up with one's case. A claimant should know at all times what is happening with his or her disability claim. Typically, this will involve a certain amount of periodic calling to get status updates. Why is this a good idea? It makes sense for several reasons. First of all, by calling the disability examiner at DDS (Disability Determination Services), a claimant can sometimes "spur" the examiner to work a bit faster since, as the saying goes, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Disability examiners generally do not like to receive calls from claimants, and claimants who call quite often will sometimes have their files worked on faster simply to free the examiner from excess phone calls. Secondly, by calling for status updates, a disability claimant can verify that whatever paperwork he or she has submitted (such as questionnaires and appeal forms) was actually received. Social Security offices are legendary for not being able to locate claimant-submitted paperwork and asserting that it was "never received."

Consider getting a Social Security attorney to assist you with your claim. An attorney, after reviewing a claimant's case, may decide to work proactively on getting an approval as early as possible, perhaps even during the initial application phase.