Disability Audio is a regularly updated podcast that provides information about the Social Security Disability and SSI disability benefit system. It is produced by former Disability Claims Examiner Tim Moore, who previously worked for the Social Security Administration’s “DDS”, or Disability Determination Services agency.
More resources on the Social Security Disability Resource Page.
Description of this podcast segment:
This segment of the podcast discusses types of decisions on social security disability and SSI disability claims. It covers what is referred to as a technical denial, a denial that is issued on a disability claim when a claimant is not even eligible to be considered for disability benefits in either the SSD or SSI program. Technical denials, when given, basically mean that a claimant’s case is never assigned to a disability claims examiner for processing and, consequently, the claimant’s medical records are never ordered and then evaluated. Technical denials are issued fairly quickly, usually in a matter of days and they tend to be given when a claimant applies for disability but is working and earning too much income, or when the claimant is filing for SSI disability and either has too much income or too much in assets to be eligible for this needs-and-income-tested program. This segment also addresses the types of disability claim decisions that are given to claimants by administrative law judges at disability hearings. Those decisions are either favorable or unfavorable, but, as the podcast points out, even favorable disability approvals at hearings can be less-than-fully-favorable. And sometimes an approval that is less than fully favorable can actually mean that the claimant will not receive ongoing monthly disability benefits, but, instead, will receive what is known as a closed period, i.e. an amount of backpay for a specific period of time in which the disability judge considers the claimant to have been disabled (and, obviously, in this type of situation the judge considers that the claimant is no longer disabled and, thus, not eligible to continue receiving monthly benefits).
