How to Fill Out and Submit Form SSA-827: Authorization to Disclose Information

SSA Form 827 is the written authorization that lets the Social Security Administration and its state Disability Determination Services offices collect your medical records, school records, employment files, and other information needed to decide a disability claim. You sign it once, and SSA uses it to contact every provider and institution on its list. You can download it from ssa.gov, sign it electronically inside an online disability application, or complete a paper copy at your local field office.¹

Without a signed SSA-827, your claim cannot move forward. The agency has no legal path to request the evidence it needs, and thin evidence almost always means a denial.

Where to Get the Form

Three places, depending on how you’re filing:

Download the PDF directly from ssa.gov.¹
Sign it electronically as part of an online disability application. The form is built into the application and uses a click-and-sign process, so nothing needs to be printed.²
Pick up a paper copy at any Social Security field office.

The form itself is two pages. Page one is the authorization you sign. Page two contains the instructions and your revocation rights.

Filling Out the Form

Read both pages before you sign. The fields are simple, but a mistake in any of them can cause a provider to reject the records request and stall your case.

Your Identifying Information

Enter your first, middle, and last name (with any suffix like Jr. or Sr.) exactly as it appears on your government-issued ID. Add your Social Security number and date of birth. These have to match SSA’s records.³

Signature, Date, and Contact Details

Sign and date the form and add your phone number with area code, street address, city, state, and zip code. Use blue or black ink only.³ The date next to your signature matters: it starts the 12-month clock on the authorization.

The Optional Purpose Checkbox

There is a checkbox to mark only if SSA is deciding whether you can manage your own benefits, not whether you qualify for them. Most applicants leave it blank. If you’re not sure, ask your claims representative.

Witness

The form has space for one or two witnesses. A witness should be someone who knows you and can observe you signing, and they add their own signature plus a phone number or address.³ Some states require a witness; others don’t. When in doubt, get one. It costs nothing and heads off a possible rejection.

Signing for Someone Else

If the claimant can’t sign the form, someone else can sign for them. The form has checkboxes for the signer’s relationship:⁴

A parent, when the claimant is under 18.
A court-appointed legal guardian, for a claimant who has been declared legally incompetent.
Another personal representative, such as someone holding a power of attorney or a court order. If you check this box, explain the basis for your authority.

If the state where you sign requires two signatures, use the second signature line. Whoever signs for the claimant should be prepared to explain their legal authority if SSA asks.

How to Submit It

You have three submission paths.

If you filed your disability claim online at ssa.gov, sign the SSA-827 electronically inside the application. It transmits straight to SSA’s systems.²

If you filed by phone or in person, SSA can walk you through an attestation process that also skips the paper copy.²

For a paper form, mail, fax, or drop off the signed original at your local Social Security office. If your case has already been assigned to a Disability Determination Services examiner, send it directly to that examiner using the contact information they’ve given you.⁵

Don’t sit on a signed form. The 12-month clock is already running from your signature date.

What SSA Can Collect With It

The authorization is deliberately broad. It reaches both medical and non-medical sources so adjudicators can see how your impairment affects your daily life and ability to work.

On the medical side, every provider you’ve listed, plus any SSA identifies during its investigation, may release your full record: physician notes, hospital discharge summaries, lab results, imaging reports, and mental health treatment records. Substance abuse treatment records are included as well; a 2020 revision to 42 CFR Part 2 confirmed that these records can be released to SSA under a signed authorization.¹

On the non-medical side, the form reaches schools, employers, and insurance companies.⁴ Schools can release individualized education programs, academic transcripts, and counselor notes. Employers can share performance evaluations, attendance records, and job descriptions. Workers’ compensation carriers can send claim files.

What Stays Private

The SSA-827 is HIPAA-compliant, and it draws one clear line: it does not authorize release of psychotherapy notes as defined in 45 CFR 164.501.⁴ Those are the therapist’s private process notes about a counseling conversation, kept separately from the rest of the chart.

The exclusion is narrower than most people assume. Medication records, session dates and durations, treatment plans, diagnoses, symptom summaries, and clinical test results are all still disclosable, even from a mental health provider.⁶ If mental health treatment factors into your claim, expect SSA to receive substantial clinical detail. The therapist’s verbatim session notes stay out.

How Long It Stays in Effect

The SSA-827 is valid for 12 months from the date you signed it.⁷ During that window, SSA can use the same form to contact your providers as many times as needed, including follow-ups when someone is slow to respond. The authorization also stays in effect until SSA reaches a final decision on your claim, even if that happens before the 12 months are up.¹

If your claim is still pending after 12 months, common at the reconsideration or hearing stage, SSA will ask you to sign a fresh SSA-827 so it can keep gathering updated records. That’s routine.

How to Revoke It

You can cancel the authorization at any time by sending a written statement to any Social Security office. Send a copy of the revocation to each provider or source you no longer want disclosing your information. If you’re not sure which sources SSA has already contacted, ask; SSA can tell you.⁷

One limit: revocation does not reverse anything a provider already did in reliance on the authorization. Records a hospital sent before receiving your revocation stay in your SSA file. From that point on, though, SSA cannot use the revoked form to request more information.

What Happens If You Don’t Sign

Signing is technically voluntary. But the form itself states the consequence plainly: failing to sign, or revoking before SSA has the evidence it needs, can prevent an accurate or timely decision and can result in denial or loss of benefits.⁴ Without the authorization, Disability Determination Services has no way to verify what your doctors have documented. The agency decides on whatever it has, and if that’s thin because access was blocked, the decision usually goes against the claimant.

1
Social Security Administration. Information on Form SSA-827
2
Social Security Administration. Alternative Signature Processes for Form SSA-827
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Social Security Administration. Instructions for Completing the SSA-827
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Social Security Administration. How SSA-827 Meets Requirements for Authorization to Disclose Information
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Social Security Administration. Submit Forms and Upload Documents
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GovInfo. Department of Health and Human Services 164.501
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Social Security Administration. SSA Form 827 Authorization to Disclose Information