PARTIALLY FAVORABLE DECISIONS

When you have a Social Security disability hearing, you appear before an administrative law judge.  He or she will probably not hand down a decision at the end of the hearing.  No lawyers walking out and telling their client, "We won," as you see on TV commercials.  The judge will usually take 6 weeks or longer to write a very detailed decision and you will receive it in 6 weeks or so.


Partially favorable decisions occur when the hearing judge moves up the alleged onset date.  For example, you may claim to have become disabled on February 3, 2010.  If you filed your application within 12 months after that date, you could receive disability payments all the way back.


However, if the judge decides that you actually did not become disabled until a later day, say December 2, 2010, you have lost 10 months of back pay because of the revised onset date.  The date on which the judge finds you to have become disabled is called the "established onset date."  


A fully favorable decision awards benefits back to the onset date that was alleged in the claimant's application - or full back pay.  The claimant's representative will be careful not only to prove a current disability but also to show how far back the disability goes - to preserve the back payments.


All Title 2 claims have a 5-month waiting period for which past due benefits are not payable.  So if you established onset date is January 1, you would first be eligible for a benefit payment June 1.  (January - May would be your "waiting period").


A partially favorable decision will provide current month-to-month benefits but may cost you thousands of dollars in lost back payments.  Fortunately, in most jurisdictions, partially favorable decisions are uncommon.  Of all the claimants who win awards, I would say that over 90 percent of the awards are fully favorable.

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