Continuing Disability Reviews

When a claimant first applies for benefits, the burden is on the claimant to show that he/she is entitled to benefits. Once on benefits, the burden shifts to the government, which must show that the claimant's medical condition has improved so much that a return to the workforce is warranted. The SSA conducts Continuing Disability Reviews (CDR's) to determine whether claimants on the rolls are still disabled.

Continuing Disability Reviews

When a claimant first applies for benefits, the burden is on the claimant to show that he/she is entitled to benefits. Once on benefits, the burden shifts to the government, which must show that the claimant's medical condition has improved so much that a return to the workforce is warranted. The SSA conducts Continuing Disability Reviews (CDR's) to determine whether claimants on the rolls are still disabled.

Medical Reviews: The Medical Improvement Standard

In CDR's, a different standard of judging disability applies. It is called the "medical improvement" standard. Only medical improvement can jeopardize a claimant's benefits. For instance, if a claimant was found to be disabled 20 years ago, has received benefits ever since, and his medical condition is unchanged, Social Security cannot come in and say "We made a mistake 20 years ago, we were too liberal in granting you disability after your motorcycle accident. You should have been taken off benefits once your fractures healed and your memory returned. You can do a sedentary job now."

The medical improvement standard may have been intended to protect claimants from political swings over the years. Once the SSA has decided a claimant is disabled, safeguards are in place to protect that claimant from SSA changing its mind arbitrarily during a later Administration.

Non-Medical Reviews

Claimants are responsible for reporting changes in their income, but even if claimants have not tried to work and nothing has changed, SSA will still check up on them. Checkups are typically every three years, although this can depend on the funds earmarked by the SSA for this function, and on the claimant's age and the nature of his/her disability.

Sometimes the SSA will go for years just writing to the claimant and/or the claimant's doctor asking for an annual update to see if there has been any change. It appears, however, that work activity can trigger a CDR, especially work activity that approaches Substantial Gainful Activity levels.