What is The Difference Between The Social Security Disability Application And The Disability Report Form?

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

While these two things have a symbiotic relationship, they are two very distinct parts of the Social Security application process. You cannot have a disability claim without an application, nor can you have a disability claim without the disability report form. It takes an application, a completed disability report form, and a signed medical release form to complete a Social Security disability claim.

The Social Security disability application provides Social Security with your personal information (i.e. birth date, marriages, resources, income, military service, earnings, work history, children, date you stop working, etc).

Generally, Social Security obtains your disability application during a disability interview generally completed by phone or in person at the local Social Security office. While there is currently an online Social Security disability application and disability report form, the online process does not allow you to file for SSI or Supplemental Security disability.

In addition to this inconvenience you still will have to return a signed medical release form even if you complete both the application and disability report form online.

A Social Security claims representative will compete your disability report form with you during your application interview. The disability report form asks questions about your:

1) Disabling condition,

2) Medications both prescribed and over-the-counter,

3) Medical treatment sources (you should be prepared to provide Social Security with names, phone, number and address),

4) Treatment dates (estimates as to the dates each medical source treated you),

5) Your relevant work activity for the past fifteen years (relevant work history includes any work performed for three months or more during which your earnings were at an SGA level, provided the work was done long enough for the requirements of the job to be learned),

6) And your education (high school graduate or not, if not what was the last grade you completed, college, technical school, etc.).

Social Security will also ask about any kind of special education you may have required in school (this may help your disability application if you have alleged disability on the basis of learning, speech, or comprehension disabilities).

In order to get all of the personal, work, and medical information needed to process a Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability claim; Social Security must have both an application and a disability report form.

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SSD and SSI are Federal Programs

The title II Social Security Disability and title 16 SSI Disability programs operate under federal guidelines and, therefore, the program requirements--medical and non-medical--apply to all states:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Recent approval and denial statistics for various states can be viewed here:

Social Security Disability, SSI Approval and Denial Statistics by state

Special Section: Disability Lawyers and unnecessary claim denials