A Free Guide to Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income Disability Benefits
Contacting Your Senator or Representative About Your Social Security Disability Claim
By R. M. Bottger
When you apply for Social Security or Supplemental Security Income disability benefits, you want to do everything you can to help your case. One of the things that you can do is contact your United States senator or representative about your disability claim.
Once you contact your congressperson, he or she will contact the Social Security Administration about your case. An inquiry from your congressperson will not change the ultimate decision in your Social Security and/or Supplemental Security Income disability case from a denial to an allowance. If you meet the Social Security Administration's requirements for Social Security disability benefits, then you will be found disabled. If you don’t meet their requirements, then you will not be found disabled. However, contacting your congressperson can still benefit you when you apply for Social Security disability benefits. When I was a disability determination specialist in Oklahoma, cases were placed in a backlog to await assignment to a disability determination specialist when they first came into the office. Sometimes cases stayed in the backlog for weeks awaiting assignment to a disability determination specialist. However, cases that had a congressional inquiry were immediately assigned to a disability determination specialist. Once a case with a congressional inquiry was assigned to a disability determination specialist, updates were frequently sent to the congressperson to tell him or her what was currently being done on the case. These updates helped to make sure that the case was looked at frequently and not just setting in somebody’s office without anything being done to it. Although contacting your congressperson can’t guarantee that your Social Security and/or Supplemental Security Income disability case will be an allowance, it can help your case be done a little faster.
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