When you apply for Social Security Disability benefits, you need them now. Unfortunately, the process can be agonizingly long, and if your application is denied, the process can drag on for years. It may be helpful to know that the Social Security Administration has two automatic expedited processes.
Quick Disability Determinations
The first expedited process is known as Quick Disability Determinations or QDD. This is process is a computer-based predictive algorithm. The algorithm looks for applications that have the same characteristics as already approved applications. In this way, it flags those applications that the computer believes have a high probability of approval, and then a human SSA person pulls it for expedited processing.
Compassionate Allowances List
The Compassionate Allowances List or CAL is another computer-based process that flags Dayton, Ohio, applications. However, this program is a keyword finder that looks for ailments from an approved list of disabilities and diseases that the SSA already approved. This lease is compiled by the SSA from the public, medical experts, Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities and the National Institutes of Health. Like the QDD, when it finds an application that matches its search criteria, it flags it for an SSA agent to process immediately.
Double-edge sword
For those in Ohio who qualify for QDD or CAL, it is a lifeline that can get their application processed in days, rather than months or years. However, since their applications are moved to the front of the line, other applications that were received prior to those applications, are pushed back. This means that, for those applications, their processing time is extended.