Disability Claim: Information Needed and the Processing of the Claim

By Ashley Dwayne Casas

Contracting a physical or mental ailment while under employment can really prevent you from helping yourself save for the future and providing support to your loved ones. Inasmuch as you want to work, you don't want to sacrifice your health just to help yourself and your family out financially. Therefore, you must avail for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits in the soonest possible time.

This flagship program of the Social Security Administration helps persons with disability and their families by providing benefits. Eligibility for the SSDI benefits is based on the length of time the applicant has worked and its relative FICA tax contributions over that period of time.

Applying for benefits must be done on the onset of the person's ailment or disability. The application process alone can take up to 90 to 150 days. Applying for benefits, though, won't take the local SSA office that long to process it if the applicant provides enough information.

The applicant must have a Social Security number and a birth or baptismal certificate. He should also have all the contact information of his doctors, as well as the hospitals and clinics in which he went for treatment and medical examination. Important documentation such as medical records from medical professionals, lab and test results, and employment records will speed up the application process.

The SSA determines the applicant's eligibility for SSDI benefits through review and evaluation of the provided documents. They will check if the applicant is qualified based on the years of work. His work activities will also be evaluated. They will then submit the application to the DDS, or Disability Determination Services of the applicant's home state.

The state DDS office will finalize the application for the SSA's decision to make the applicant eligible for SSDI benefits. The office has its own doctors and disability experts whose task is to contact the applicant's doctors and other attending medical personnel for information about his ailment. The DDS doctors and experts will verify with the applicant's doctors through the provided medical records.

After which, the decision would be determined through a look at the five-step process. The questions lean towards the SSA's definition of "disability". The questions are as follows:
1. Are you working?
2. Is your medical condition "severe"?
3. Is your medical condition on the List of Impairments?
4. Can you do the work you did before?
5. Can you do any other type of work?

An applicant may not agree with the decision made by the DDS and the SSA. The applicant, therefore, may appeal for it either by himself or through representation from any available social security disability lawyers.

Ashley is an online writer. She spends so much time in internet surfing and reading about legal/law matters. She is an advocate of rights and dedicated on writing social security disability lawyers and long term disability lawyer articles to date.

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