The length of time between applying for and actually receiving Social Security Disability benefits can stretch on for months, even years. When you’re struggling to make ends meet after receiving a diagnosis of a disabling injury or illness, you may be wondering how you’re going to cover your day-to-day expenses while your application is being processed. If you qualify to receive a Compassionate Allowance disability determination, you may begin to receive benefits sooner than the average wait time.
Compassionate Allowance is a program that offers an expedited approval of an application for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has generated a list of diagnoses (the complete list of which can be found here) that are considered to automatically meet the SSA’s requirements of total disability meriting the receipt of benefits. This list includes certain forms of bladder or breast cancer, angiosarcoma, acute leukemia, esophageal cancer, and those high on a heart transplant list.
Applicants with such a diagnosis who meet all other criteria to receive SSDI benefits should receive an expedited determination of disability. Some applicants will receive a decision from the SSA in as few as ten days from the date that the application was filed. However, if medical providers fail to submit records supporting your claim to have been diagnosed with one of the conditions on the Compassionate Allowance list, your application may be delayed.
The SSA states that it automatically screens all applications for Compassionate Allowance eligibility. That said, those experienced with the system know that the SSA’s decisions on whether or not to grant Compassionate Allowances can seem arbitrary. The availability of an expedited Compassionate Allowance disability determination is yet another reason why it’s smart to obtain legal help to prepare your SSDI application from the beginning of the process. Should you submit a technically-flawed application when you would have qualified for a Compassionate Allowance, you’ll have exponentially increased your delay in receiving benefits from the amount of time it would have taken for a determination if you had help in making your application strong in the first instance.
If you are a disabled worker in New York and need assistance in applying for benefits or appealing a denial of disability, contact knowledgeable Highland disability attorney Peter M. Cordovano for a consultation on your case, at (845) 414-8482.