I periodically receive calls from disability claimants who are receiving benefits but who have been notified that their cases are being flagged for a "continuing disability review" (CDR). In general, SSA has the right to review any SSDI or SSI case at any point to determine if the claimant still meets the requirements for disability.
As a practical matter, you can expect SSA to review your case once every three years or so. If your condition is permanent in nature and not likely to improve, you may only get reviewed every ten years or not at all. In addition, I have seen judges provide in their decisions that a particular case needs to be reviewed yearly – this might happen if the judge has concerns about alcohol or drug use, or if your condition is one that is likely to improve.
If SSA conducts one of these continuing reviews and they find that you are still disabled, you do not need to do anything, except to continue to treat with your doctor and to keep copies of your records in preparation for the next review.
If, however, SSA determines that your condition has improved and that you no longer meet the disability definition, you will receive a notice that your benefits are being terminated, and that you have the right to appeal. Unless you are prepared to forego benefits, you should file your appeal.
If you appeal the termination decision SSA will continue to pay you benefits while the appeal is being considered, however, if you end up losing, you could face a demand from SSA to repay these appeal period benefits.
If your appeal is denied, you have the right to request a hearing – the same type of Administrative Law Judge hearing that you may have participated in at the time your benefits were approved. Be aware, however, that in a continuing disability review hearing, there are no "back benefits" available. As such, you will most likely not be able to find a lawyer who will handle your case on a contingency.
This means that you will have to pay a lawyer to represent you at a hearing – your cost could be $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the complexity of your case. Therefore, if you receive a CDR notice, you may want to set aside $200 to $300 per month into savings so that you will have funds to pay a lawyer.
It has been my experience that very few CDR claimants come to court with lawyers and I personally think that you are taking a big risk if you show up without representation.
[tags] continuing disability review, CDR, Social Security disability, SSDI benefit review, appeal of continuing review [/tags]