FAQ

It's great that she has two doctors willing to sign!  Yes, we recommend including both signatures -- it sends a stronger message that they are both on board with the content. And it won't cause any issues.

Many of our sample MSRs include information about physical disabilities in addition to mental impairments. Here is an example of one.

We also encourage you to review the Listings for the specific criteria SSA will be looking for, for each condition. You'll want to include information in your MSR about how the person's conditions meet the listing criteria. 

We recommend contacting the DDS examiner assigned to the case to find out where they are in the decision making process. If they have just been assigned the case and are starting to process it, then you have time to write and submit a Medical Summary Report. You could let the DDS examiner know that you have additional evidence to submit. If you do not have an SSA-1696 on file, the claimant will need to be with you when you call. 

The SAMHSA SOAR TA Center recommends that you don’t cite the Listing and Grid numbers, e.g.) Ms. Jones meets Listing 12.04, and the alternative Grid rule 203.03. Rather, at the DDS level (initial and reconsideration) we suggest providing a description of how the applicant meets a particular Listing(s) or Grid rule through specific examples from the medical records, applicant quotes, and other collateral sources.

If a person is guarded when you are interviewing them for the MSR, you can explain to them the importance of you gathering this information and providing it to Social Security as part of the SSI/SSDI application process. If they still don't want to provide you information then you can document in the MSR the person's guarded nature, their behavior and symptoms you observe, and document that you believe it to be due to the symptoms of their mental illness (paranoia, delusions, suspiciousness, etc.). You can try to obtain the information you need for the MSR from the person's medical records and if they are willing to sign ROIs, you can attempt to interview collateral sources such as family, friends, case managers, etc. to obtain information to include in the MSR. 

SSI has a monthly federal benefit rate that changes each year plus any available state supplement. You can find the current benefit amounts on our SSA Annual Updates page.

If an individual becomes disabled before the age of 22 and one of his/her parents is either deceased or receives disability or retirement benefits, the "Disabled Adult Child" may receive benefits based on their parent's earnings record. SSA has an easy to use FAQ page about this topic: https://www.ssa.gov/planners/disability/qualify.html

Generally, SSA will not count the retroactive (back-pay) SSI or Social Security benefits for up to nine months after the person receives them. This includes payments received in installments.

When the individual receives his/her award letter it should spell out the exact length of time s/he has to spend down the retroactive payments. If there is any confusion, definitely check with the local SSA office for specifics on the individual's case.  

If he is eligible for unemployment and the amount is more than the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR)*, then he should take the higher amount (unemployment) as long as he can.  The medical approval for SSI will last for 12 months, so if the unemployment only lasts a few months, he can always reapply for SSI (the non-medical application) and SSA will use the medical decision from his last application. 

*This figure is updated annually and can be found at SSA Annual Updates.

SSA considers any life insurance policy with a face value of $1,500 or higher. The face value is how much insurance you're buying, (e.g., $5,000, $10,000, etc.). The cash value is what you'd get for the policy if you cashed it in.  Since this person’s policies are valued at $3,700, they are over the resource limit for an individual ($2,000). In order to fall below the resource limit, they would need to cash in one (or more) of the policies depending on what other resources they have.  They would need to use/spend that money to live on before becoming eligible for SSI.