Processing of your Initial Social Security Disability Claim
The Social Security definition of disability mandates that you must have a medically determinable mental or physical impairment and that the impairment has prevented you from performing work activity that earned SGA-level income for the past twelve months, or can be expected to prevent SGA for twelve months. After each claim is initiated and a disability interview has been conducted, claims representatives at social security offices gather the medical and work information for your disability claim and then send the claim to a state disability agency (DDS, or disability determination services) for a medical determination. Once your disability file is received at the state disability agency, or DDS, it is assigned to a disability examiner, who then sends for your medical records. Ordinarily, the wait for your medical records will constitute the bulk of the time that it takes to process your case. In some instances, your records will be gathered within a couple of weeks. Very often, howev...