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Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to share that we have redesigned the decision documents you and your clients will receive for certain fully favorable disability decisions at the hearing level. The redesign aims to make these decisions more concise, easier to understand, and faster to deliver.

What Is Changing

For certain fully favorable hearing decisions, you and your clients will receive a single document titled, “Decision Notice.” This concise notice will include:

• A statement that the decision is fully favorable.
• The date the claimant’s disability began.
• The reason for the finding of disability.

Your clients will also be able to access the Decision Notice through their personal my Social Security account. The notice will explain how to request more detailed information about the decision, which will be contained in a Decisional Worksheet available in the electronic folder.

What Remains Unchanged

The Decision Notice will continue to provide information about receiving benefits, filing an appeal, and contacting us for assistance. If a fee agreement is involved, a Fee Order will be included as an enclosure. All other aspects of the process remain unchanged.

When These Changes Begin

In October, we began introducing the new Decision Notice for a limited number of fully favorable hearing decisions, and we will expand its use over time. We will continue to issue decisions using our standard Notice of Decision and Decision and Fee Order documents during this rollout as we monitor implementation.

We encourage you to share this information with your colleagues and clients. Clients who do not have a personal my Social Security account can create one at www.ssa.gov/myaccount.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Nick Perrine
Chief Communications Officer