Tracking Your Social Security Disability Claim: A Quick Guide

Filing for Social Security Disability (SSD) means that someone who worked hard for years suffered a serious injury or illness that is preventing them from being able to earn enough income to support themselves and their family. No one who files for SSD benefits has the luxury to wait patiently for an unlimited period of time to learn what the Social Security Administration (SSA) decided; is the claim approved or denied?

Here at Disability Experts of Florida, we know how frustrating it can be to wait and wonder whether your SSD claim will be approved, or how far along in the process has your claim progressed. This blog post will give you some tips on how you can check the status of your SSD claim, but you’ll also read how you can ensure that your claim moves as quickly and as steadily as possible through the Social Security bureaucracy.

How to Find Out the Status of Your SSD Claim

There are several methods of checking the status of your SSD benefits claim:

• Online: The Social Security Administration maintains a website through which you can access much of the information about your claim, as well as your history of work and your expected benefit amount. You can register for a free account at mysocialsecurity. You will be able to find out the following information: 
  • Date of filing.
  • Current claim location.
  • Servicing office location.
  • Scheduled hearing date and time.
  • Re-entry numbers for incomplete applications.
  • Publications that may be of interest to you, depending on your claim and current step in the process.

• Call Your State Disability Determination Services Office: The state Disability Determination Services (DDS) office is the first place your application goes after you file it. In Florida, you can telephone them at 1-800-499-4978 on weekdays from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
• Call the National Social Security Office number at 1-800-772-1213 between 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
• You can call your disability lawyer or advocate’s office to find out if they have any updates or if they can reach out for more information about the status of your SSD claim.

Why You Should Check the Status of Your SSD Claim

Checking the status of your SSD claim is a good idea in every case. For some people, just getting some information and updating them on their claims will provide some comfort and ease their anxiety. But there are other valid reasons for checking the progress of your claim.

• You should confirm that your SSD claim package was received and logged in. The Social Security Administration is a massive bureaucracy and is remarkably efficient in handling documents. However, assuming something arrived and was correctly entered into the system is risky. The better practice is to confirm that your claim was received and assigned a file number.
• If you filed an SSD claim that was incomplete, the case may stall at a very early stage and not advance until the missing material is provided. Typically, you will receive notice that your claim has stalled, along with a request for more information. But messages can be misdelivered. Rather than learning months later that the SSA is waiting for more information from you, checking the status of the claim periodically will ensure you are aware of the issue.
• Notice of a Denied Claim may be the single document that was lost or mishandled. If your SSD claim was denied but you did not receive the notice, your appeal period will still begin to run when the denial was issued.

How Often Should You Check the Status of Your SSD Claim

Anyone who files an SSD claim should check on the status of the claim about every 30 days. More frequently than once per month is unlikely to reveal more activity than would be discovered monthly. However, it is recommended to check shortly after you file any additional documents to make sure that they arrived safely and were properly recorded in your case file. Another opportune time to check a bit more frequently is when you are expecting a decision or a new hearing date.

How to Make Your SSD Claim Move Through to Decision as Speedily as Possible

Working with experienced Social Security Disability advocates who interact with the Social Security Administration continually is the best way to keep your SSD claim moving along. Professional disability advocates are also among the most knowledgeable people to assist you in putting your complete claim package together in the manner that SSD claim reviewers prefer.

Disability Experts of Florida has helped thousands of disabled people win the approval of their Social Security Disability claims and Supplemental Security Income claims. With decades of combined experience, our staff performs skilled analyses and does all the work collecting medical documents you need to support your disability claim. We lift the burden from your shoulders and set your claim on a path to be handled with maximum efficiency by the Social Security Disability administrators.