Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a federal insurance program run by the United States government and funded via payroll tax. It is intended to provide income for people who are unable to pursue work themselves as a result of a disability.



The insurance is intended to keep the claimant in adequate finance until they are able to begin looking for work again in the disability is only temporary, or indefinitely if the disability is for life. Before payment can begin, applicants have to prove that they are disabled, and must then endure a lengthy wait while their application is assessed, and then approved or denied. On occasion, applicants for SSDI are also advised to simultaneously apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is a welfare program that does sometimes deal with people with a medical disability.



Making a disability claim can be a stressful enough action in and of itself, but the wait to find out whether the claim has been approved or not can be equally stressful, especially as such claims can often take what seems to be an inordinately long period of time to be processed and decided upon one way or the other. One way to feel at least some measure of control is to have the ability to at least check on the disability claim status with the Social Security Administration, and fortunately there are ways in which you are now able to do this.
If the claim has been pending for an unusually long amount of time, claimants can choose to contact their local social security office and attempt to speak to a claims representative, who will be able to give general updates on such cases. However, for most cases contacting the exact state disability processing agency (usually referred to as DDS) Disability Examiner who is actually personally handling their case is a far more efficient and fruitful idea.

Disability Examiners (who are professional members of NADE (the National Association of Disability Examiners, a body that, as the name suggests, has been set up solely for this purpose) can usually be contacted via telephone, with their contact numbers available via the local social security office. Disability claims, particularly first time claims, can take anywhere between thirty to ninety days to be assessed, so if you are feeling anxious, there is no specific amount of time you should feel you have to wait before making the call to check on the status of your claim, although it would generally be pointless to make such a call prior to at least thirty days after filing the application.