WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF DENIALS?

Social Security may deny disability benefits for different reasons.  The two biggest reasons are technical denials and medical denials.  I'll try to explain what these terms mean.

TECHNICAL DENIAL.  These denials occur when a claimant does not meet the technical requirements for Social Security payments.  These might include:

• Insufficient work history to be covered by SSDI
• Application was filed after the date last insured
• Appeal was not filed within the 60 day deadline
• Too much household income for SSI benefits, etc.

MEDICAL DENIALS.  Medical denials occur when Social Security finds that the medical evidence (doctor's records) does not support the existence of disability.  In other words, they believe that while a claimant may have some impairments, he or she can still perform some type of full-time work.

Generally speaking, technical denials are very difficult to appeal.  The technical facts are cut and dried and speak for themselves.  It is not a matter of opinion.  You either worked enough to be covered by SSDI, or you didn't.  Your application was filed on time, or it wasn't.  

Medical denials are where appeals often get results.  Going by national averages, almost one-half of medical denials are won at appeal.  My appeal averages are much higher than that, partly because I'm selective in the cases I will accept.

But the point is, if you get a medical denial (which is by far the most common), you should appeal it immediately.  If your denial letter says something like....

"While we find that you are not able to perform your past work, there are certain jobs that you are still able to perform..."  

....that is a medical denial and should be appealed right away.  You have a 60-day deadline to file the appeal.

The simple translation is:  "You have some medical problems but we don't believe your problems are bad enough to keep you from working."  This is opinion, probably false, and may be corrected at a hearing.

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