What is a Disability Update Report?

If you are currently receiving Social Security Disability benefits (SSD benefits), you might receive (or might have already received) a Disability Update Report, which is also known as Form SSA-455. When you receive a Disability Update Report, you must provide information to the Social Security Administration (SSA), or you could risk losing your disability benefits. We want to provide you with more information about the Disability Update Report and how you can submit it accurately and in a timely fashion.

Learning More About the Disability Update Report 

The Social Security Administration explains that the Disability Update Report is part of its “Continuing Disability Review (CDR) process, which is required by law.” Through the process, the SSA will periodically review the cases of disability benefits recipients in order to determine whether the recipient still meets the eligibility requirements in order to receive SSD benefits. In order to make this determination, the SSA will send out the Disability Update Report (or Form SSA-455), and you will be required to provide the SSA with updated information about your medical condition(s) and any recent treatments you have undergone that are related to your disability.

Information You Must Provide in a Disability Update Report 

What kind of information, specifically, must you include in a Disability Update Report, or what kinds of questions are you required to answer? Form SSA-455 asks some of the following questions or requires disability benefits recipients to provide information about the following inquiries:

• Have you worked for anyone in the past two years, or have you been self-employed within the past two years?
• If you have worked in any capacity in the last two years, when did you begin working and what were your monthly earnings?
• Has your health been better, the same, or worse within the last two years?
• At any point in the last two years, has your doctor told you that you are able to return to work?
• Have you attended any school or work training programs in the last two years?
• Are you interested in rehabilitation that would allow you to return to work in some capacity?
• Have you been hospitalized or had any type of surgery in the last two years?
• Have you visited a doctor or a clinic for the condition for which you receive disability benefits within the last two years?

Submitting Your Disability Update Report 

The SSA allows disability benefit recipients to submit the Disability Update Report online, which is also known as a digital option. This option only became available as of November 2020. Prior to that date, any SSA beneficiary was required to submit the Disability Update Report to the SSA as a physical copy.

Contact a National Disability Benefits Attorney for Assistance

If you have any questions at all about filling out a Disability Update Report, or if you have questions or concerns about your eligibility for disability benefits, one of our experienced national Social Security disability attorneys can speak with you today and can answer your questions.  Contact the Law Offices of Stephen Barszcz to learn more about the services we provide to SSD recipients across the country.