Ask Larry

Hi my husband passed away October 2020 he was on ssdi. I am also on ssdi with a much lower benefit than his and I applied for ssdi widow benefits end of October. It is now March 29 and I am still waiting for an answer. I am 58 years old my husband was 60 when he died. How long does this usually take? Ssdi told me their waiting on my doctor reports. Thanks

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. Under the best of circumstances it generally takes at least 60 days to make a disability determination, but I imagine that the pandemic has created backlogs throughout Social Security's operations. Still, though, 5 months seems like a long time to wait for a decision. Furthermore, if you're already receiving Social Security disability benefits based on your own earnings history, Social Security would normally be able to adopt that determination without needing to make a new determination (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0411011001).

The only reason I can think of for why Social Security would need a new medical determination is if your own disability benefits were scheduled for a medical review. You might want to ask Social Security to explain why they can't adopt your previous medical determination to approve your disabled widow's claim. If Social Security is in fact waiting for records from your doctor, though, you may be able to help speed up the process by calling your doctor's office to ask them to send the requested records to Social Security ASAP.

Best, Jerry