What You Need to Know About Expedited Social Security Claims

The Social Security Administration (SSA) offers expedited disability benefits, but these expedited benefits are only available under certain circumstances. If you can match the criteria the SSA sets for critical cases, you can gain your benefits far sooner than later. However, matching those criteria and applying for expedited benefits isn't always easy.

What Is an Expedited Social Security Benefits Claim?

Even under ideal conditions, a social security benefits claim can take quite a while. However, the SSA identifies certain critical cases that can receive expedited consideration and faster processing. These critical cases fall under six categories. Each category comes with its own rules, requirements, and stipulations for making an expedited claim.

1. When You Have a Terminal Illness

A terminal illness can allow eligibility for an expedited claim. An untreatable or irreversible illness that will eventually end in death falls under this category.

Terminal illnesses can include, but aren't limited to:

• Stage IV cancers
• ALS
• AIDS

Sometimes a situation rather than the illness itself can fall under the category of a terminal illness. If you need a transplant or life support, then the SSA can count it as a terminal illness for the purpose of making your claim a critical case.

Still, a terminal illness isn't always the same as a disability. This means your case must still go through a disability determination before it can become an expedited request.

2. When You Have a 100% Permanent and Total VA Disability

The way SSI and SSDI works with VA benefits can vary, but if you're a veteran with a 100% P&T disability rating from the VA, you can make a critical case claim. The SSA will need verification of your rating from the VA, but once they receive it or find it through a data match, you will automatically receive expedited processing.

3. If You're Wounded on Active Duty (After October 1, 2001)

If you received an injury or illness while on active duty, you can make an expedited claim. This type of critical case applies no matter what type of injury you sustain, physical or psychological, as long as it occurred while you were on active duty and after October 1, 2001.

4. If Your Condition Qualifies for a Compassionate Allowance

The SSA's Compassionate Allowance program identifies several serious conditions known to obviously qualify for disability benefits. Your illness must match one the SSA keeps on the Compassionate Allowance list to receive expedited consideration.

Some examples of conditions on the Compassionate Allowance list can include:

• Acute leukemia
• Early-onset Alzheimer's
• Various forms of cancer

If you have a condition that develops into one listed for Compassionate Allowance while you're going through the claim process, you can update your case to a critical case to expedite it.

5. When You Have a Dire Need

Extreme hardship or need can sometimes help turn your case to a critical case eligible for expediting. A dire need can include:

• Not having food and no way to get any
• Lack of shelter or an uninhabitable dwelling and no way to remedy the situation
• No resources to access needed medical care or medicine

Evidence of a dire need isn't always absolutely necessary, but it can help a great deal. If you remedy the situation yourself, the case can drop from a critical one back to normal.

6. If You're A Danger to Yourself or Others

If you or someone else reports you're a possible suicide risk, potentially violent, or possibly homicidal, the SSA can expedite your claim. You can report your mental condition yourself, but the SSA will attempt to find a way to corroborate what you say.

While the SSA investigates, they may also call the proper authorities or request you go to a facility for a treatment program. Other groups or people may report your condition as well, such as the police department, a doctor, or your family members.

Once a claim becomes a critical case, it receives priority in every way. If the SSA doesn't give your claim an immediate on-the-record decision, then your claim will take the first available slot for an ALJ hearing.

How Can an Attorney Help You With an Expedited Claim?

An expedited claim isn't something you will find advertised. Depending on the type of critical case involved, you may have to go through several steps to make sure your claim receives the expedited special processing from the Office of Hearings Operations.



Just like with any other SSI or SSDI claim, you will have to show a high level of meticulousness, which is often best handled by working with an attorney. Legal aid can help to make sure you eliminate many of the potential problems that can stop your claim, reverse it, invalidate it, or make it take longer than it should. Your attorney will let you know if your claim can become a critical case at all.

Contact Todd East Attorney at Law about the possibility of an expedited claim.