How to Speed Up Your Social Security Disability Claim?
Your application for Social Security disability benefits may not be decided for years. By accurately completing the necessary paperwork, promptly responding to Social Security information requests, and gathering your personal medical records and sending them earlier in the process, you can shorten the wait time.
Waiting for an ALJ hearing accounts for a large portion of the typical delay. (If your initial application for benefits is rejected, you’ll likely need to ask for a Social Security disability hearing and hope the judge will grant you benefits.)
This waiting period may be stressful, particularly if you have no alternative source of income for your household or if your health issues are severe enough to reduce your life expectancy.
For applicants for disability benefits who have specific physical problems, experience very challenging personal circumstances, or have served in the United States military, the Social Security Administration (SSA) can accelerate processing. Even if you don’t fall within one of these “critical case” classifications, you can still take action to expedite your claim, such as hiring a Social Security Disability lawyer.
Some of the ways listed below can help you determine your eligibility for disability benefits more quickly.
Request a Favorable Decision Before a Hearing
It may be beneficial to request an “on-the-record decision” or a “legal advisor opinion” if you have complete medical records that show what problems you have and how they affect your ability to do any work-related activity.
Requesting an OTR Decision
In place of waiting for an appeal hearing, you may request an “on the record” (OTR) review if you have provided sufficient medical documentation to prove your disability. Suppose your case has sufficient information to establish your disability and there’s no need for testimony from you or a potential vocational expert at a hearing. In that case, an administrative law judge (ALJ) will issue an OTR decision. You are able to avoid the ALJ hearing and the associated delay by using an OTR decision.
You must first appeal a rejection and ask for a hearing before contacting the nearby Office of Hearing Operations (OHO) to obtain an OTR review. An ALJ will provide a written decision confirming your disability application if OHO allows your request for an OTR judgment. Your application will move on to the ALJ hearing if it is denied.
If the judge wants to grant you disability but move your onset date (so that you receive less backpay), you’ll need to wait until your hearing. It’s important to note that if you don’t have a disability attorney, you can’t negotiate with Social Security about your disability onset date.
Requesting an Attorney Advisor Decision
Getting an earlier decision from a Social Security attorney is another approach to avoid waiting for an ALJ hearing. For claimants who can demonstrate that Social Security committed a mistake, which would support their claims, attorney advisor decisions are available.
After requesting a hearing, get in touch with the local OHO office to ask for an attorney advisor decision. To learn more, an attorney advisor could request further supporting documentation or arrange a meeting with you.
If successful, you will receive a written “fully favorable” attorney advisor opinion that will grant you benefits going back to the onset date you stated in your application. If an attorney advisor determines that there is insufficient evidence to support your claim, the ALJ hearing will take place in your case.
The attorney advisor may render a partially favorable decision if she believes that you’re disabled but disagrees with the date of your onset. You can go to the ALJ hearing or accept the partially favorable decision (as well as less backpay).
Compassionate Allowance
You could be able to receive benefits considerably faster if you have a really serious illness and complete the other requirements for SSI or SSDI. The “Compassionate Allowances List” (CAL) maintained by Social Security lists more than 200 ailments.
If you have medical proof that you suffer from one of the CAL illnesses, Social Security will grant benefits more quickly—in days or weeks as opposed to years—if you meet the requirements. The list includes a variety of cancers as well as illnesses like Tay-Sachs disease, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The CAL program is supposed to be considered when Social Security screens disability applications. Still, if you suffer from a Compassionate Allowances condition, you need to let Social Security know when you apply. By including all of the medical documentation proving you have a CAL condition with your application, you can expedite the CAL procedure.
Terminal Illnesses
You are automatically given consideration for quicker processing and judgment of your claim if you have a terminal illness, or TERI (Social Security’s term for a condition that’s predicted to cause death). The following, among others, are qualifying requirements and situations for the TERI program:
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- AIDS
- stage IV cancers and malignant
- receiving hospice care at home or as an in-patient
- waiting for a liver, bone marrow, heart, or heart and lung transplant
Your benefit application will be flagged for TERI program review by Social Security if it includes a qualifying condition. Additionally, you might indicate on the application that you suffer from a fatal illness.
Presumptive Disability for SSI Applicants
Before the SSA reaches a decision, you might be eligible to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for up to six months. In order to qualify for presumptive disability benefits, you must both meet the SSI program’s income limitations and have a high probability that your medical conditions will satisfy the disability criteria listed in Social Security’s evaluation handbook. Instances of conditions that meet the criteria for presumptive disability include:
- complete deafness
- absolute blindness
- the amputation of two limbs, or one leg at the hip,
- confined to a wheelchair or bed.
Dire Need
There is a situation of dire need where applicants claim they:
- are without food and unable to afford it.
- lack access to medicine or medical care because of a lack of resources, or
- lack refuge or are in imminent risk of eviction or foreclosure with no way to avoid it or locate alternate shelter.
If you find yourself in any of these circumstances, writing or having a social security disability lawyer prepare a dire need letter may help expedite the procedure. The letter must include proof of your hardship and explanation of why your claim must be handled more swiftly than others. If you’re likely to be evicted, for instance, you should submit photocopies of the eviction notice and provide a justification for why you cannot find a different shelter.
Military or Veteran History
When an applicant receives a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) rating of 100% permanent and total (100% P&T) disability payments, Social Security will classify the case as serious.
A case may also be labeled as critical by Social Security if the applicant is an active or retired military member who:
- acquired an illness, wound, or injury
- after October 1, 2001, while in an active duty status
- that harmed one’s physical or mental health.
Getting in touch with a Member of Congress
You might try to call or write to your senator and congressman or congresswoman if you’ve been waiting for a long time for your ALJ hearing and you are not qualified for any of the above choices. To try to expedite your case’s evaluation, the staff at your legislator’s office can speak with Social Security on your behalf.
Why Is Your Social Security Disability Claim Taking So Long?
You must be familiar with the Social Security Disability process in order to comprehend why it takes so much time for the Social Security Disability claim to be approved or denied.
Many Individuals are also Applying For Social Security Disability Benefits
Many people are seeking disability benefits. You’re among the vast numbers of people who submit their initial applications each year, either online or in person at their local SSA field office. The SSA needs time to assess and evaluate each application given the large number submitted annually. The average evaluation period lasts between three to six months.
Most people’s initial applications are turned down. It does not necessarily follow that you have to give up and end your case. To obtain disability benefits, Social Security claimants may have to undergo an appeal procedure. If you don’t file your appeal within 60 days of receiving a denial, you’ll have to restart your claim.
Steps in the Disability Appeals Process
It is advisable to contact an experienced South Portland Social Security Disability attorney at this stage if your initial application has been rejected for assistance with your case. They will submit the necessary papers to the SSA on your behalf in order to contest the first denial ruling. “Request for Reconsideration” is the name given to this section of the appeal.
Most disability claims are again denied at this stage of appeal, which can take two to three months.
A Request for Hearing before an ALJ is the next step. The majority of the waiting time occurs here. Because there aren’t enough Administrative Law Judges in the country, everyone whose case has reached this stage of appeal must wait a long time to meet with a judge. Before their hearing, applicants have recently had to endure between 14 to 22 months of waiting, if not more.
Your attorney will provide the SSA any new medical records or any other proof of your disability prior to this hearing. The judge will consider this evidence together with your testimony as well as any witness or expert testimony at the hearing.
Most likely, the judge won’t decide your case that same day. After the hearing is over, they will frequently evaluate your case and decide. Within a few months of your hearing, you will get notice of the decision through mail.
Final Steps in Social Security Disability Appeals
You can request the Appeals Council to reconsider your claim if your request for benefits is rejected at the hearing level. The majority of the cases are rejected during this stage of the appeals process, which can go for at least another year.
A lawsuit against the SSA is brought in federal court as the last step in the appeals procedure. Generally speaking, you shouldn’t complete this step on your own; if you haven’t done so already, it is advised that you hire an attorney. In federal court, winning a disability case is tough.
Can a Social Security disability lawyer advance a case more quickly?
The application and appeals processes for Social Security disability may move more quickly if you have a lawyer representing you. Although there’s no fast track for people who are represented by lawyers, there are a few things you can do to perhaps speed up the processing of your claim.
According to government studies, applicants for benefits who receive professional assistance really have a double the chance of being approved.
Get Help Speeding Up Your Claim Today!
How to speed up your social security disability claim is one of the questions that people with disabilities who want to apply for Social Security Disability benefits have. A person’s chance of receiving benefits increases if they contact an attorney to assist with their application for Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
A clear benefit of having an experienced counsel on your side is that your social security disability claim will be processed more quickly. You may decide whether or not engaging a legal representative is the best course of action for you by understanding what they offer.
The simplest and most efficient method to ensure you get a decision as soon as possible on your Social Security disability claim may be to hire a Jackson & MacNichol social security disability attorney in South Portland, Maine. We are knowledgeable with Social Security’s rules and regulations and can:
- correctly complete the application
- watch your case for updates
- gather necessary information
- contact Social Security with requests and evidence that could help your case progress more quickly.
- file an appeal right if your case is rejected.
Contact us right away to schedule an appointment with our law firm for a free consultation or for more detailed information on how to speed up your Social Security Disability Claim.
