When will I Get My Benefit Verification Letter?

In the world of Social Security disability benefits, your benefit verification letter or benefit award letter is an extremely important document. Your benefit award letter contains:

• confirmation that you have been approved for disability benefits by Social Security
• the date that Social Security has determined your disability began
• the amount of your monthly payments
• when you can expect your monthly payments to begin

The Disability Process

You have probably heard that getting disability benefits from Social Security is not easy and that it can take years for your claim to be approved. This can be true, but how long the process takes for you depends on where in the process you are granted benefits.

In addition to the initial application filing process and review, should your claim be denied there are then four more levels of review your claim can go through and you can be approved anywhere along the process or denied all the way through every appeal. 

Initial Application to Final Appeal

When you (or your attorney on your behalf) initially files a claim for Social Security disability, your claim is reviewed for basic program eligibility that has nothing to do with your actual disability. Social Security will review your file to verify your employment; in order to be eligible you have to have worked for a certain period of time that's based on your age in a job where you paid Social Security taxes.

Once that information has been verified as well as some other basic information in your file, it is sent to a state agency called Disability Determination Services (DDS) where your disability claim will be medically evaluated. This is the place in the process where you can either be approved or denied. If you are approved, you will probably get your benefit verification letter about three to five months after you filed your initial claim.

If your claim is denied, you have the right to appeal the decision:

• the first level of appeal is called a Reconsideration. A completely different examiner from DDS who had no part in your original claim denial reviews your case and makes an independent decision to approve or deny
• if you are denied at Reconsideration, you may request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge who also has had no prior involvement in your case. If you are approved at this level, you will be notified of the decision within about 30 days and then can expect your award letter within about three months
• there are two additional levels of appeal available; at any appeal point you are allowed to present new evidence to support your case including updated treatment and prescription drug information

What Can Delay Your Letter?

The best thing that you can do to expedite your claim is to make sure all requested information from yourself, your physicians, and other written testimony such as that from family members is provided on time, completely and accurately. No decisions can be made on an incomplete file.

Get Legal Help Early

To ensure optimum results, hire an attorney who specializes in Social Security disability cases. You have likely never done this before and they have done this hundreds of time. Their knowledge and experience can remove a huge burden from your shoulders and allow you to focus on your health and hopefully your recovery.