These days we don’t receive a lot of positive information or news from the mail. Typically we receive bills or junk mail, but no longer do we receive letters, postcards or even checks in the mail like we used to. This has all been replaced by e-mail, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook and direct deposit. It would be natural that we don’t expect anything good to come from the mail and the majority of Social Security disability applicants know this first hand.
Social Security mails out denial letters to disability applicants that they determine to be able to work, thus denying a claim for disability. This happens more times than not and those who receive those letters are upset, angry and looking for answers. It is difficult not to take a denial letter from Social Security personal, but every day we urge our clients to try and not overreact to these denial letters.
The experts who deal with Social Security on a regular basis come to understand and even expect that the majority of their clients are going to be denied at the early stages of this process, but also realize the case is far from lost.
Although denial letters may have your name on it with a list of claimed disabling conditions and a list of medical treating sources used to make a determination that is about as unique as these form letters get. The majority of these denial letters, no matter who the person is claiming to be disabled, are more similar than unique. You don’t have to take our word on it, listen to what Tim Moore, a person whose job it was to issue denials on these claims.
The denial letters “are largely template-assembled letters (meaning that if you lined up 10 ‘notices of disapproved claim’ from 10 separate claimants, the letters would tend to look very much the same).”
Moore is a former Disability Determination Services examiner in North Carolina. It is the job of DDS to determine whether someone is disabled for Social Security benefit purposes.
When one of our clients calls up because they are upset about receiving such a denial letter they usually want to talk about specifics related to the letter, but the truth of the matter is that there really are no specifics to talk about. Each of these letters will state that “You said you are unable to work because” and then a list of disabling conditions that were claimed will follow. Eventually the letter will indicate that “doctors and other trained medical staff” looked at medical records and determined that your conditions do not prevent you from working. Sometimes these details will describe all the things an applicant can do and are not prevented from doing by there conditions, essentially indicating to the claimant that their conditions are not severe enough to keep them from working, so go to work.
If a claimant’s conditions prevented them from working they would then potentially be eligible for disability benefits, so that is why these letters are issued and why they contain the specific language they do.
Most of the time these early determinations denying a claim are meaningless in the final outcome of a disability case. It is important to understand that about 75 percent of all people who apply for disability will receive this letter, so you are not alone if you have received this rejection in the mail.
If you believe you are disabled and cannot work at a substantial level you should appeal this decision and move forward. Try not to overreact to specific language in the letter. We tell our clients the first thing they should do when they receive such a letter is to call our office so we can schedule a time to complete the appeal.
For more insights into the disability determination process here.
