If you’re looking for Form SSA-795 to keep your Social Security disability payments going while you appeal a medical cessation, the form has changed. As of May 2025, SSA replaced the SSA-795 for this purpose with a dedicated form, the SSA-792 (Statutory Benefit Continuation Election Statement).1Social Security Administration. Implementation of the Form SSA-792 Statutory Benefit Continuation Election Statement File the SSA-792 with your appeal within 15 calendar days of the date on your cessation notice, and your payments continue while the appeal is pending.
What Changed in May 2025
For decades, the SSA-795 was a blank statement form that beneficiaries used to write a freehand request asking SSA to continue paying them during an appeal. It gave no guidance about the options available, so mistakes were common. The SSA-792 replaces that freehand approach with a structured form that walks you through your choices: cash benefits, Medicare, or both, and whether to continue payments for family members receiving benefits on your record.
If you already sent in an SSA-795 or a plain letter asking for benefit continuation, SSA will treat it as a protective filing to preserve your deadline, but the agency will ask you to complete and sign an SSA-792 before it actually processes the election.2Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12027.010 – Processing Statutory Benefit Continuation Go straight to the SSA-792.
Who Can Elect Benefit Continuation
Statutory benefit continuation (SBC) is available when SSA has decided your disability has ended for medical reasons and you’re appealing that decision. It covers disability insurance benefits and child’s, widow’s, or widower’s benefits based on disability.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 423 – Disability Insurance Benefit Payments The three situations that qualify are:
- Medical cessation after a continuing disability review (CDR).
- An age-18 medical redetermination that found the condition no longer meets the adult standard.
- An adverse medical reopening that changed a prior allowance to a denial, a closed period, or a different cessation date.
SBC does not apply to an initial determination that you were disabled only for a closed period, a reopening that simply moves your onset date later, or a case already pending at the Appeals Council or in federal court.4Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12027.001 – Statutory Benefit Continuation
The 15-Day Deadline Is the Trap
Your appeal and your SBC election must reach SSA within 15 calendar days of the date printed on the cessation notice.5Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12027.008 – Evaluating the Time Limits for Electing Statutory Benefit Continuation SSA reaches that number by allowing 10 days plus 5 days for mail delivery. You have a longer 60-day window to file the appeal itself, but it’s the shorter 15-day window that decides whether your money keeps coming.
Count from the date on the notice, not the day you opened the envelope. If the letter sat unread for a week, your clock is already most of the way down.
Missing the deadline is not always fatal. SSA can accept a late election if you show good cause, and the SSA-792 includes a section to explain the delay. Serious illness, a family emergency, misleading information from SSA staff, never receiving the notice because of an address error, and physical, mental, educational, or linguistic limitations are the sorts of reasons SSA weighs.6Social Security Administration. POMS GN 03101.020 – Good Cause for Extending the Time Limit to File an Appeal The explanation has to be specific and in writing.
How to Complete and File the SSA-792
The SSA-792 asks for your name, Social Security number, and contact information, then has you check what you want continued: cash benefits, Medicare, or both. You can elect Medicare only if you’d rather decline cash payments.7Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1597a – Continued Benefits Pending Appeal of a Medical Cessation Determination
Only you can sign the SSA-792. A representative payee can sign for you if one has been appointed, but an attorney or non-attorney representative cannot sign on your behalf. If a representative does sign and files on time, SSA treats the filing as protective while it obtains your signature.8Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12027.010 – Processing Statutory Benefit Continuation
You can get the form from SSA’s website, upload it through a my Social Security account, mail it, or hand it in at a field office.9Social Security Administration. Social Security Forms If you mail it, use certified mail with return receipt. If you bring it in, ask for a date-stamped copy of everything you leave behind. Proof of the filing date is what you’ll need if there’s ever a dispute about whether you made the deadline.
The Appeal Itself Uses SSA-789, Not SSA-561
For a medical cessation, the appeal form is SSA-789 (Request for Reconsideration — Disability Cessation).10Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12026.021 – Completion of the SSA-789 Request for Reconsideration The general SSA-561 says in bold not to use it when your disability check is being stopped for medical reasons.11Social Security Administration. Form SSA-561-U2 – Request for Reconsideration
The SSA-789 also asks whether you want a disability hearing during reconsideration, which is a right unique to medical cessation cases. If you’d rather have the decision made on the written record, you say so and complete Form SSA-773 as a waiver.12Social Security Administration. Form SSA-789 – Request for Reconsideration Disability Cessation Submit Form SSA-3441 (Disability Report — Appeal) at the same time to update SSA on new treatment, new providers, and how your condition has changed since the last review.13Social Security Administration. Disability Report – Appeal The reconsideration reviewer looks at your whole medical picture, so recent records help.
Dependents on Your Record
If family members receive benefits based on your disability, your election covers them too. The SSA-792 lets you decide for each dependent whether to continue or stop payments.14Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12027.007 – Who May Elect Statutory Benefit Continuation Each auxiliary who is eligible signs a separate SSA-792.
Be deliberate. If you want a dependent’s payments to stop, mark it clearly on the form and confirm it with the field office, because processing errors that keep paying dependents you asked to stop can generate thousands of dollars in avoidable overpayments.15SSA Office of the Inspector General. Statutory Benefit Continuation for Disability Beneficiaries
Medicare Is the Safer Election
Medicare Part A and Part B continue during the appeal if you elect them on the SSA-792, and you can choose Medicare-only if you’re working and don’t need the cash but can’t lose the coverage.7Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1597a – Continued Benefits Pending Appeal of a Medical Cessation Determination
The important detail: if you lose the appeal, you don’t repay any Medicare benefits you used during the appeal period.7Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1597a – Continued Benefits Pending Appeal of a Medical Cessation Determination Only the cash payments become an overpayment. That makes electing Medicare continuation essentially risk-free.
What Happens If You Lose the Appeal
If SSA’s final decision confirms that your disability ended, every cash payment you received under benefit continuation becomes an overpayment SSA will try to recover.16Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02250.036 – Fault Determinations for Overpayments Due to Benefit Continuation During Medical Cessation Cases Appeals at the hearing level can stretch past a year, so the totals get large.
You can request a waiver. SSA first looks at whether you appealed in good faith, and the statute requires SSA to account for any physical, mental, educational, or linguistic limitations you may have when deciding that question.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 423 – Disability Insurance Benefit Payments A good-faith appeal opens the door to a standard waiver: you show you were without fault and that recovery would be against equity and good conscience or would defeat the purpose of the benefits.16Social Security Administration. POMS GN 02250.036 – Fault Determinations for Overpayments Due to Benefit Continuation During Medical Cessation Cases Ask for the waiver within 30 days of the overpayment notice; a timely waiver request pauses collection while SSA decides.17Social Security Administration. Resolve an Overpayment
Electing Again at the ALJ Level
Benefit continuation is not a single election. If you lose at reconsideration and take the case to an Administrative Law Judge, you have to file a new SSA-792 within 15 calendar days of the unfavorable reconsideration notice to keep payments running through the hearing.5Social Security Administration. POMS DI 12027.008 – Evaluating the Time Limits for Electing Statutory Benefit Continuation Even if you declined continuation at the reconsideration stage, you can elect it at the ALJ stage.18Social Security Administration. SSA-792 – Statutory Benefit Continuation Election Statement Payments continue until the ALJ decides or until no timely appeal is pending.7Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.1597a – Continued Benefits Pending Appeal of a Medical Cessation Determination
Where the SSA-795 Still Fits
The SSA-795 hasn’t disappeared. It remains SSA’s general-purpose statement form, and you can still use it during a disability appeal to describe your symptoms, explain conflicting evidence, or add context that doesn’t fit on any other form.19Social Security Administration. POMS GN 00301.305 – Statements or Opinions of Claimants or Other Persons Family members, caregivers, or former employers can use it to describe how your condition affects daily life.20Social Security Administration. SSA-795 – Statement of Claimant or Other Person
It’s signed under penalty of perjury, so what goes on it matters. Use plain language and concrete detail. “I can’t stand for more than ten minutes without severe pain in my lower back” tells a reviewer more than “she is disabled.” Just don’t use the SSA-795 to elect benefit continuation. That’s what the SSA-792 is for now.