| Natalia Jofre: | Welcome to the Hill and Ponton Social Security Disability blog. I’m Natalia Jofre I’m our social security director. |
| Shelly Mark: | My name Shelly Mark I am the senior social security attorney. |
| Natalia Jofre: | We’re going to talk to you today about the initial level. The initial level is basically when you file a claim for social security disability benefits what you need to do, where you need to go and what all that entails. |
| Shelly Mark: | Exactly. The initial element of social security is when the person first decides to and then actually files the claim of disability benefits. |
| Natalia Jofre: | In previous blogs, we’ve talked about what are the basic prerequisites in order to file for benefits and you shouldn’t be working and all sorts of stuff like that. So when you’re actually going to file, you’re either going to call social security’s 1-800 number or you can visit your local office. The waiting periods are going to vary depending on where you live. |
| What I will say when it comes to waiting periods is social security will give you a pamphlet that says they have to give you a decision or that they will give you a decision in about 90 days and this is nationwide, they send this to everyone and they’re under no obligation to actually render a decision within that time period. They’re just basically trying to give you a ballpark idea of how long it’s going to take. | |
| Shelly Mark: | Right. |
| Natalia Jofre: | We know a lot about ballpark time frames. |
| Shelly Mark: | That’s correct. They like to give ballparks but not actually have any deadlines. |
| Natalia Jofre: | Yeah. When you file the application if you do it by phone, they’ll then send you the actually application in writing for you to then review, make any corrections regarding any information they either recorded wrong or maybe you have rethought and might need to change. You make those corrections, you sign that written application and send it back. Obviously if you do this in the office, they just keep it while you’re there. |
| We normally recommend that people file online because it is much, much quicker. And you can do that by going to their website ssa.gov dot gov. It’s just faster and you’re giving all the information directly whereas to if you need to wait for an appointment with social security to actually talk to you and take this information either by phone or even going to their office. We’ve seen backlogs of two months just to get an appointment. | |
| Shelly Mark: | Wow. |
| Natalia Jofre: | So you’re application’s going to be taken at the local office. Whichever local office and the way your office is basically assigned to you is based on your address and your zip code specifically. Once they’ve actually taken your application at the local office then they’re going to send it onto the office of disability determinations also in your local area. And then they’re going to evaluate your claim to see whether you meet the medical requirements to qualify for benefits. At the local office. |
| So let me go back a little bit. At the local office they’re going to look at do you meet the technical requirements. In other words, have you worked enough or is your income low enough, depending on which benefit you’re applying for. If you’re a widow, has it been within, all sorts of technical requirements. And then they send it to the office of disability and normally they send them forms, right? | |
| Shelly Mark: | Right. |
| Natalia Jofre: | To fill out. |
| Shelly Mark: | Definitely. |
| You’re going to receive forms about your functional ability to perform activities, very simple activities as far as cooking and cleaning and maintaining hygiene and then you’re also going to be sent forms about the work history. Really important to make sure when they fill these forms out that they’re very accurate. If you’re represented by someone, we would recommend that if they have any questions whatsoever they should definitely ask about those because the forms will become a part of the file and they’ll still be referenced and used all the way at the hearing. | |
| Natalia Jofre: | Which is super critical because if they start finding discrepancies in between what you said when you initially applied and what you’re now saying when you’re before a judge, they’re going to hone in on that and try to use it against you. |
| After you submit all of your forms and they get all of your medical records then they’re going to send it to a medical person and that person’s going to review your claim medically. Then they’re going to render a decision. If there’s a recommendation for you to be approved, they’re going to send it to another office out state and they’re going to either uphold that decision to approve it or if they’re just going to deny it, they’ll deny it locally and then the actual local office will send you the written decision. | |
| And we’ll get into more about what you do after that happens. | |
| Shelly Mark: | Right. What would you say, Natalia what percent of cases do you think are approved at that very initial level? |
| Natalia Jofre: | Here in Florida, well I think that this pretty much applies nationwide. I would say that 85% of cases are denied at the initial level. A very high percentage. The ones that you see get approved are the ones that meet some strict compassionate allowance or it’s expected that the person is going pass away in the very near future. Pretty extreme cases. But 85% of cases are denied on average. |
| Shelly Mark: | And maybe we’ll discuss what to do if you’re actually denied at the initial level next. |
| Natalia Jofre: | Yeah, we’ll do that in our next blog. So thanks for joining us, if you have any questions, feel free to call our office or visit our website. |
| Shelly Mark: | Thank you. |
Video Blog – Filing an Initial Level Claim
