SSDI Campaign Script: A Word-for-Word Intake Template

If you've worked an SSDI campaign, you know the qualifying questions take about three minutes and nobody argues about them. The arguments start over two other moments: what the agent said in the first 20 seconds, and what they promised in the last 20 before the transfer.

An SSDI campaign script is the call flow your agents use to qualify a Social Security Disability Insurance claimant and transfer them to a disability law firm or advocate. The firm pays for qualified transfers, usually against a spec sheet of its own criteria, and rejects the ones that miss.

Below is a complete script you can paste into VICIdial's script tab and adjust to your buyer's spec, followed by the SSA rules behind each question and the lines that get a campaign pulled. Your buyer's spec sheet always beats any template, including this one.

The SSDI campaign script

Brackets are yours to fill in. Lines in italics are notes for the agent, not words to read out.

1. Opener

"Hi, is this [first name]? This is [agent name] with [your company]. We're a private company that works with [firm name or "disability law firms"], and we're not Social Security or any government agency. I'm calling because you asked about help with a disability claim [on our site / through our form] on [date]. Do you have a couple of minutes?"

If they say they never asked: apologize, ask if they'd like to be taken off the list, mark it as do-not-call in VICIdial and end the call.

2. Recording notice

"Just so you know, this call is recorded for quality and so the firm can see what we talked about. Is that OK?"

If they say no, don't continue on a recorded line. Disposition it and move on.

3. Qualifying questions

"I'm going to ask a few quick questions to see whether the firm can help. None of this is an application, and Social Security makes every decision."

1. "How old are you?" Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Most buyers set a band well under that; use theirs.
2. "Are you working right now?" If yes: "About how much do you make in a month, before taxes?" Over $1,690 a month in 2026 is above the substantial work limit for non-blind claimants.
3. "What's the condition that's keeping you from working?" Let them talk. Don't diagnose and don't comment on how strong it sounds.
4. "How long has it kept you from working, or how long do your doctors expect it to?" SSA needs 12 months or more.
5. "In the last ten years, about how many years did you work at a job where taxes came out of your paycheck?" Roughly five of the last ten is the usual rule for older workers. Younger callers need less.
6. "Are you seeing a doctor or getting treatment for it now?"
7. "Do you already have a lawyer or advocate on a disability claim, or a claim that's open with Social Security right now?" Most buyers reject callers who already have a representative. Check whether yours takes open claims or denials.

4. The transfer

"Thanks, [first name]. From what you've told me, it makes sense for you to speak with [firm name] directly. They'll go over your situation and explain how they work. I'm going to bring them on the line now and stay on for a moment to introduce you."

When the firm's intake picks up, before you drop:

"Hi, I have [first name], [age], out of work since [month and year] with [condition in their words], worked about [X] of the last ten years, being treated now, and no current representative. [First name], you're in good hands."

5. If they don't qualify

"Based on what you've shared, the firm I work with isn't the right fit right now. You can always contact Social Security directly at ssa.gov or 1-800-772-1213, and applying with them is free. Thanks for your time."

That last line isn't charity. Telling a caller that applying with SSA is free keeps you clear of the Section 1140 problem covered below, and it ends the call cleanly.

Why each question is there

The script follows SSA's own rules, so an agent who knows why a question exists will handle an odd answer better.

Two facts worth knowing for the questions callers ask. SSA pays SSDI only after a five-month waiting period from the date it decides the disability began. And a firm's fee under a standard fee agreement is the lesser of 25% of past-due benefits or $9,200, the cap SSA set from November 30, 2024. Agents shouldn't quote either number on a call, but a confused caller is easier to handle when the agent knows them.

The lines that get an SSDI campaign pulled

Anything that sounds like Social Security. "I'm calling about your disability benefits," "I'm with the disability office," or a caller ID name with "SSA" in it. Section 1140 of the Social Security Act bars using SSA's name or words in a way that suggests SSA is behind the call, and SSA's Inspector General has fined marketers and even a law firm under it. The opener above says "we're not Social Security" in the first sentence for that reason. It's also what the buying firm checks first.

Promises. "You'll definitely get approved." "You could get back pay of $20,000." "It'll take about three months." None of those are the agent's to promise, and a firm that hears one on a recording will usually reject the transfer and sometimes the whole batch. The safe answer to "will I get approved?" is a version of "Social Security makes that decision. The firm can tell you more about your situation."

Skipping the disclosures. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule requires an outbound sales call to disclose promptly who the seller is and that the call is about selling a service. "Promptly" means near the start, not after the qualifying questions. Our TSR compliance checklist covers the rest of the rule, including the five-year record of every call.

Charging for, or hinting at, something SSA does free. Applying for SSDI costs nothing. If an agent implies the caller has to go through your firm to apply, that's the kind of line Section 1140 was written for.

Calling outside consent. SSDI leads mostly come from web forms, and the consent on that form is what lets you call. Our TCPA checklist covers calling hours, Do Not Call and revocation.

Setting the script up in VICIdial

Paste the script into Admin, Scripts, and assign it to the campaign. VICIdial can merge lead fields into the text with variables like --A--first_name--B--, so the opener reads the caller's name and the date of their inquiry without the agent typing it. Put the seven questions in a custom form or in the script itself, and add a disposition for each common reject reason (over SGA, has representation, under 12 months) so you can see where your transfers are failing before the buyer tells you.

If your floor already scores calls, put the risky lines on the scorecard as their own checks: said "we're not Social Security" in the opener, gave the recording notice, made no approval or amount promise. Our QA scorecard template has a column built for checks like these.

When the firm says the agent promised approval

Sooner or later a firm rejects a batch of transfers and says your agents promised approvals. You'll want to answer with the call itself, and a raw recording pulled off your server in the middle of a dispute is easy for the firm to wave off.

A Klariqo Call Record is a signed record of one recorded call: the transcript, a fingerprint of the audio and a digital signature, with an independent RFC 3161 timestamp from DigiCert. Change one byte and the signature breaks, so the firm can check it at verify.klariqo.com without trusting you or creating an account. Change a word on a sample call to see the check fail.

Klariqo connects to VICIdial with read-only access in about 10 minutes and seals every recorded call in the background. Your first 10,000 recorded calls get their record free, and Call QA can score each one for the opener, the recording notice and any approval promise.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Check your buyer's requirements and your own counsel before you run a campaign.

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