How to Begin the SSDI Application Process

Most people start a Social Security Disability application on the day they finally accept they are not going back. The decision has usually been made for them somewhere in the previous year, by a condition that got worse, an employer who ran out of accommodations, or a doctor who stopped saying this would improve. By the time somebody sits down at the SSA website, the hardest part has already happened. Our Denver Social Security Disability lawyers at Boesen Law take these claims from that point forward.

The original version of this post described two steps: call the office, then come in for a meeting. That is still how the firm opens a file, and it left out everything a person needs to know before that meeting. This version covers the rules that decide the claim, most of which are arithmetic rather than medicine, and several of which are settled before an examiner ever opens the file.

What Social Security Means by Disability

The word carries a narrower meaning here than it does anywhere else, and applications fail on this point more often than people expect.

Social Security pays for total disability only. There is no benefit for a partial disability and none for a short-term one. Under the agency’s eligibility rules, a qualifying disability requires all three of the following at once: you cannot do work at the substantial gainful activity level because of your condition, you cannot do the work you did before or adjust to other work, and the condition has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 consecutive months or to result in death.

The 12-month requirement catches people who apply too early. A serious injury with a six-month recovery does not qualify, however difficult those six months are. What matters is the expected duration recorded by a treating physician, which is why the phrasing in the medical records does a great deal of work.

For answers to your questions, call:
(303) 999-9999

The Earnings Test That Ends Applications First

Before anyone looks at your medical file, Social Security looks at your pay. This is step one, and it is a calculation rather than a judgment.

Earnings above the substantial gainful activity threshold generally rule out a finding of disability. The SGA amounts change each year with the national average wage index. For 2026, the monthly figure is $1,690 for a non-blind applicant and $2,830 for someone who is statutorily blind.

Two details matter and are widely missed. The threshold is measured net of impairment-related work expenses, so the money you spend in order to be able to work at all can come out before the comparison is made. And an applicant earning under the figure has not passed anything yet, because clearing step one only means the file moves on to the Disability Determination Services office, which handles the medical questions.

Anyone still working part time while deciding whether to apply should get advice about this number before changing anything, since the timing of a reduction in hours interacts with the dates discussed below.

Whether You Have Enough Work Credits

SSDI is an insurance program funded by payroll taxes, so eligibility depends on having paid in recently enough and long enough. Credits are the unit of measurement, and you can earn a maximum of four in a year.

In 2026, one credit is earned for each $1,890 of wages or self-employment income in a quarter, so $7,560 across the year produces the full four. The general requirement is 40 credits, 20 of which were earned in the 10 years ending with the year the disability began. This is the 20/40 rule, and it is the reason a long gap out of the workforce can defeat an otherwise strong medical case.

Younger workers can qualify on fewer credits, on a sliding scale tied to age at onset. The rule also runs in one direction only: someone eligible today who stops working may not still meet the requirement in a few years, which is an argument against waiting to see whether things improve.

The Five Questions That Decide the Claim

Social Security applies the same sequence to every application, in order, and a decision at any point ends the inquiry.

1. Are you working? Earnings at or above the SGA level generally end the claim at this step.
2. Is the condition severe? It has to significantly limit basic work activities such as lifting, standing, walking, sitting, or remembering, for at least 12 consecutive months.
3. Does it meet a listing? The agency keeps a catalogue of conditions considered severe enough to prevent substantial work. Meeting one closes the question.
4. Can you do the work you did before? If the answer is yes, the claim is denied here.
5. Can you adjust to other work? Age, education, past experience and transferable skills are weighed against what you can still do.

Steps two through five belong to Disability Determination Services rather than to the local Social Security office. That division explains a great deal about how these claims behave, including why a sympathetic conversation at a field office has no bearing on the outcome, and why the medical evidence has to be aimed at the people who never meet you.

The Two Dates That Decide What You Get Paid

This is the part the original post missed entirely, and it is worth more money than anything else on this page.

The date your disability began. Benefits carry a five-month waiting period. Social Security pays the first benefit in the sixth full month after the date it finds the disability started, so the onset date sets the entire payment schedule. It is also contested more often than any other fact in a claim, because the agency is not obliged to accept the date you put on the form. What supports it is a medical record that shows the condition reaching a disabling severity at the time you say it did, rather than at the appointment where somebody finally wrote it down.

The date you file. Social Security can pay up to 12 months of benefits for the period before the application date, where it finds you had a qualifying disability then and met the other requirements. Past that, the earlier months are simply gone. Every month of delay in filing is capable of costing a month of back pay that no appeal can recover later.

Those two dates interact, and they are the reason the practical advice for anyone weighing an SSDI claim is to start the application rather than wait for a cleaner medical picture. The picture can be improved afterward. The calendar cannot.

What to Have Ready Before You File

The application asks for a great deal of detail from memory, and the answers are far better when assembled in advance.

• Every treating source, with dates. Names, addresses, and phone numbers for each doctor, clinic, hospital and therapist, along with roughly when treatment started and stopped. This list drives the records request, and providers left off it are providers whose evidence never arrives.
• Medications and who prescribed them. Including what has been tried and abandoned, since a record of failed treatment says more about severity than a current list does.
• Tests and where they were done. Imaging, bloodwork, functional capacity evaluations and psychological testing.
• Work history in detail. Job titles are not enough. What the work required physically and mentally is what steps four and five turn on.
• Dates you stopped or reduced work, and why. Tie them to the medical events that caused them.
• Any earlier claim. Prior applications and their outcomes shape how this one is handled.

For the mechanics of filing once that material is together, including the online, telephone and in-person routes, our post on applying in Colorado walks through the sequence. It is also worth knowing why claims get denied before you complete a form rather than afterward.

An Attorney’s View on Starting an SSDI Claim

Joseph J. Fraser, III handles Workers’ Compensation and SSDI claims at Boesen Law, and is an attorney with experience on both sides of claims. He notes:

“People treat the application as paperwork and the appeal as the legal part. It is the other way around. The application sets the onset date, it fixes how far back the money can reach, and it produces the description of your own work that gets used against you at step four. I would rather spend an hour with somebody before they file than a year fixing what a form said. The other thing I tell people is not to wait for a diagnosis to feel final, because the retroactive window closes month by month while they wait.”

A denial at the first stage is common and is not the end of the claim. There is a defined route through reconsideration, a hearing before an administrative law judge, the Appeals Council, and federal court, and the appeal stages each allow new evidence. Where a disabling condition came out of something that happened at work, a workers compensation claim can run alongside the disability claim, and the interaction between the two affects what each one pays.

Contact a Denver Social Security Disability Lawyer at Boesen Law

If you are somewhere between deciding you cannot keep working and filing something, that gap is the expensive part. The rules above are the ones that will decide your claim, and most of them reward acting earlier rather than waiting for certainty.

Decades of experience helping the injured sit behind this office, somebody answers the phone 24 hours a day, and no attorney fee is owed unless we recover benefits for you. Contact Boesen Law to set up a free, in-person consultation. Bring your list of treating providers, the date you last worked, and any letter Social Security has already sent you.

FAQs About Beginning an SSDI Application

Should I apply while I am still working part time?

You can, and many people do, but the earnings figure governs. Monthly earnings above $1,690 in 2026, or $2,830 for a statutorily blind applicant, generally prevent a finding of disability at the first step regardless of the medical evidence. Impairment-related work expenses are deducted before the comparison, so the arithmetic is not always obvious. Because reducing hours affects both this test and the onset date, it is a decision worth discussing before it is made rather than afterward.

How far back can benefits be paid?

Up to 12 months before the date the application was filed, where Social Security finds a qualifying disability existed during that period and the other requirements were met. Layered on top is the five-month waiting period measured from the established onset date, with the first payment made in the sixth full month after it. The combination means a person who became disabled two years before filing loses the months beyond that 12-month reach permanently.

What if I have not worked in several years?

Then the credits question comes first. The general rule requires 40 credits with 20 earned in the 10 years ending with the year the disability began, so a long absence from covered work can disqualify an applicant whose medical case is strong. Younger workers qualify on fewer credits. Where the work record falls short, Supplemental Security Income is a separate program with financial rather than work-history requirements, and it is worth checking against.

Does Social Security have to accept the date I say my disability started?

No, and it frequently does not. The agency establishes the onset date on the evidence, which is why the date on the form should be supported by records rather than chosen for convenience. A date the medical file cannot carry gets moved, and moving it later shortens both the retroactive period and the total benefit. This is one of the strongest arguments for getting advice before the application goes in.

How long does a decision take?

Months rather than weeks, and longer where Disability Determination Services asks for a consultative examination or waits on records from a provider who is slow to respond. That timeline is another reason the filing date matters so much: it is the anchor for back pay, and it is fixed the day the application is submitted rather than the day a decision arrives.

Call (303) 999-9999 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form