How Do I Check the Status of My Social Security Disability Claim?
How Do I Check the Status of My Social Security Disability Claim?
If you applied for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, the wait for a decision from the Social Security Administration can be frustrating. You need the money you could receive from SSD or SSI benefits now. Any delay just adds to your anxiety.
It’s always advisable to get a qualified SSD and SSI attorney to represent you through the entire claim process. The most experienced New Jersey SSD lawyers can keep you updated on all the important information relating to your pending SSD or SSI application. Attorney M.J. Ellis devotes her legal career to getting New Jersey residents the maximum SSD and SSI benefits they deserve.
As you would expect from an expert NJ SSD lawyer, M.J. Ellis’ New Jersey Disability Law practice closely monitors the pace and progress of every client’s claim as they progress through the SSA’s eligibility approval system.
How Do I Check the Status of My Social Security Disability Claim?
If you want to check on the status of your SSD application by yourself, you can use the methods listed here.
A). Visit the Social Security Administration’s website. If you have not registered an account on the website, you can set up a free account in just a few minutes at my Social Security. By setting up your account, you can easily track your claim as it works its way through the approval process.
Once you establish an account, you will be able to find out,
- the date the claim was filed
- where the claim is in the process
- the location of the office currently servicing your claim
- any scheduled hearing date and time
- If your claim was rejected because it was incomplete, you can find your re-entry numbers to access your original online application.
B). Telephone the Social Security Administration’s disability office representatives at this number (973) 940-0313 or call your local Social Security Office. You can find the number for your local SSA office by visiting the directory website: SSA Office Locator Directory
- Telephoning the SSA requires a bit of extra patience on your part. The SSA telephone voice greeting message will tell you that they are experiencing “longer wait times than usual.” If you hold on through the entire message, you will be asked to describe your issue so they can direct you to the correct department. During the Covid-19 pandemic, no office appointments were being scheduled unless urgently necessary. All business was being conducted online and by telephone.
C). Call your state Disability Determination Services office. In New Jersey, the main number to call is (973) 940-0313. When you file an SSD benefits application, the claim is forwarded to your state’s agency that cooperates with the Social Security Administration but is entirely state-run.
D). Contact your Social Security Disability lawyer’s office. At the M.J. Ellis Disability Law Office, Attorney MaryJean Ellis and her staff are extremely responsive to their client’s questions. They will provide you with all the information you need, or they will get the answers from the SSA.
Checking on the Status of Your SSD Benefits Application Is a Good Idea
Each calendar year, the Social Security Administration receives millions of claims for Social Security Disability benefits. These include not only applications from disabled workers, but also claims from parents of disabled children, and spousal and child survivor benefits.
It’s possible that your paperwork was misplaced or damaged, or it might be stuck along the inter-office document transfer process. While such a circumstance is unlikely, checking on the status of your claim’s progress will bring any of these scenarios to light. Even applications filed completely online may be difficult to locate due to some software malfunction.
Only by contacting the Social Security Administration to check on the status would such a situation be discovered.
Just as some unknown event may have interfered with your claim making its way to the next step in the approval process, it could also have fallen off track after the claim was denied but before you received notice. In that case, the 60-day appeal period might run out before you learned of the claim’s denial.
Another good reason to check the status of your SSD application is what we call “the personal touch.” When someone telephones and speaks with another person to check on a pending SSD or SSI benefit claim, the agency employee is reminded that each of the claims and applications crossing their desk or computer screen is a human being who is either ill or injured and whose life is on hold until the disability application gets processed.
The human-to-human interaction may motivate the government worker to go out of their way to run down the information the caller needs.