FULLY FAVORABLE VS. PARTIALLY FAVORABLE DECISIONS

After you attend a Social Security disability appeal hearing, the judge may issue one of 3 possible decisions:

1).  Fully Favorable - You get everything you asked for, including pay back to the alleged onset date (the date you claim to have first become disabled).

2)  Partially Favorable - You get current monthly benefits, but lose some or all of your back pay because the judge finds you to have become disabled later than you allege in your original application.

3)  Unfavorable - The judge finds that you were never disabled according to the Social Security Act and you get no benefit at all.

It is the "Partially Favorable" decision that confuses folks the most often.  There is no such thing as a "partial disability" under Social Security.  You are either fully disabled or not disabled at all--nothing in between.

So a "partially favorable" decision refers to the decision, not to the disability.  As explained above, some aspect of the decision was not as favorable to you as it could have been.  Usually, this means the date you became disabled is determined to have been later than you claim.  This causes you to receive less "back pay" than you would have if you had been determined to have become disabled at an earlier date.

For example, Mr. Alpha alleges that he became disabled on July 1, 2012 and he wants to collect disability payments back to that date.  However, the judge finds that Mr. Alpha did not actually become disabled until January 1, 2015.  Mr. Alpha is fully disabled, but only back to January 2015, not July of 2012.  Therefore, he will be paid back to January of 2015, not back to July of 2012.  So his decision is "partially favorable."  This does not affect the amount of his monthly disability payment, only the number of months he will be paid retroactive benefits.

Again, there is no partial disability with Social Security.