Getting a Partly Favorable or Partially Favorable decision in a Social Security disability claim is confusing for a lot of people.

First, lets go over what it does not mean.  Under the Social Security system, there is no partly or partially disabled. Either your impairments keep you from being able to work (and therefore disabled) or not. There is no half disabled. Disability determinations under the Social Security system are all or nothing.  Comment:  This is also one reason it is so hard to get on Social Security.

So, the judge has to either find you disabled or not disabled.  However, even if the judge finds you disabled, the judge may not be able to give you everything you asked for.  In those cases, you get a partly favorable decision.

If you get a partly favorable decision, it usually means one of three things:

Social Security disagrees with the date you became disabled.
Social Security disagrees that your disability continues.
Social Security disagrees with the beginning and/or ending dates of your disability.

Lets take these one at a time:

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You finally got the decision on your Social Security case and it says… “Partly Favorable.”

This does not mean that you are “partly disabled.” Usually, it means one of the following:

The Judge found you disabled, but not as far back as you wanted; or
The Judge is approved a “closed period” of disability: that you were disabled from one date through another date. For example: the Judge might find that you were disabled from May 1, 2005 through December 31, 2007.

If you are ok with the partly favorable decision, give yourself a pat on the back for winning your Social Security case.

If, however, the partly favorable decision just makes you angry and you are thinking of appealing, please keep the following in mind:

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