As part of the effort to provide better customer service across the board in the government Social Security has recently made a couple of small change to the SSDI application that makes the often tedious process a little easier and a little shorter.
Already in place, the application now only requires that you provide five years’ worth of work history in contrast to the previous requirement of fifteen years. It’s not much of a change but we can appreciate the sentiment as might the SSA caseworkers who now only have to work on verifying that shorter timespan, The expectation being, of course, that with less work required of them, decisions on an applicant’s eligibility will be quicker.
Another change made that SSA didn’t include in their recent blog on the subject (Social Security to Simplify Disability Evaluation Process – Agency to Reduce Work History Period to 5 Years | SSA) is the option for applicants to nominate two references as opposed to the previous one nomination. While this may seem more time consuming, it is only an option rather than a requirement. Again it may speed up the application process as it improves the chances of SSA getting a response and a better idea of the applicant and his disabling condition.