What to do if You Don't Receive Your Disability Award Letter

The typical application processing time period from submitting the application to Social Security or Supplemental Security Income to receiving a notice as to a favorable, partially favorable or unfavorable determination as to your claim is approximately three to five month.  If you have waited for a period of time of five months or more and still have not received a notice from Social Security or SSI informing you of the disposition of your claim then it is likely going to be necessary to take some additional steps to find out what went wrong in the process. 

The most common mix-up will involve a failure of being able to contact the applicant at the last listed mailing address on file and by the last phone number listed in the file.  Possibly the award letter or determination letter was sent to a former address and never forwarded to the applicant’s mailing new address for some reason. 

Duplicate Applications for Benefits can Cause Trouble

Believe it or not the reason that a notice of disposition letter, or award letter, is not received may be due to a situation involving duplicate applications for benefits filed concerning the same individual and the same period of disability for which a previous claim was filed and a determination or adjudication notice letter was already sent out. Social Security has made it easy to apply for benefits over the telephone, on-line and in person at a local office but if a duplicate application has caused confusion in the computer based processes then all sorts of delays and problems can be the result. 

If the award or denial notice was sent to the claimant after the receipt of the duplicate application or the award or denial notice and the duplicate application crossed in the mail, Social Security will consider that no additional notice is necessary.  An upset applicant should understand that in that circumstance no duplicate award letter will be forthcoming.    

Getting Legal Help

If you or a member of your family has submitted an application to Social Security or to the Supplemental Security Income program and have not received a response letter or notice letter concerning the adjudication of that application then it may be helpful to discuss the situation with a disability attorney.  A lawyer can review the application submitted, look for trouble spot and try to determine what, if anything, could have gone wrong and help to isolate the best contact points to resolve the problem.