Continuing Disability Review

A few years after the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) finds you are disabled, it will conduct a continuing disability review (“CDR”) to determine if you remain disabled. The SSA will find that your medical condition has improved if you significantly reduced treating it. If you stop seeing the same doctors, that can lead to a CDR termination of benefits. 

I represent a 57 year old former information systems tech, whose retained us after her SSD benefits were terminated following a CDR. The claimant had relocated from New York to Connecticut. Despite any evidence that the claimant’s medical condition had improved, her SSD benefits were apparently terminated because she had new doctors, and presumably, the SSA hoped that the claimant would no longer be able to supply medical evidence to support her continued inability to work. 

On reconsideration, after submitting treatment records and tailored disability reports from the Connecticut physicians, the claimant’s SSD benefits were restored. The SSA has been increasingly seeking ways to reduce the number of claimants collecting SSD benefits. You cannot assume that you will continue to receive SSD benefits until you reach retirement age.