SSD Disability

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

You Should Appeal Your Social Security Disability Denial quickly

If you get denied for disability, you need to react quickly. This is regardless of whether or not you have filed for social security disability or SSI and this is, additionally, regardless of the level at which you've been denied. In other words, if your application for disability gets denied, or your request for reconsideration gets denied, you need to do the same thing---file an appeal immediately.

You have sixty days to get your appeal filed. And this is certainly a generous amount of time. But, amazingly, a number of applicants for disability fail to get their appeal submitted to social security within the allotted deadline. And, to be honest, even for those who barely get their social security disability appeal submitted timely, there is absolutely no reason for waiting so long.

As a disability examiner and as someone involved in disability representation, my advice has always been the same. If you get denied for disability, appeal immediately. Because waiting any time at all to get the appeal filed simply adds more time to the case, time which most claimants can ill afford to waste.

In a practical sense, this is what should occur following a disability denial:

1. An unrepresented claimant should immediately contact the social security administration and formally request an appeal. This will result in the social security office sending out appeal forms to complete and send back. However, after making the call, a person can save even more time by simply going to the social security website and downloading the forms to file an appeal.

2. A represented claimant should also contact the social security administration to formally request an appeal. However, this is just to get the appeal request on record. The person who is represented by a disability attorney or disability representive should then contact his representative, notify them that a notice of denial has been received, and request that the appeal be filed. Very often, of course, the representative's office will have already received their own copy of the denial notice. But its still a good idea to contact the rep anyway just to be sure that they actually did get their copy and know the status of your disability claim.

The individual who is not represented at the time they get a disability denial may wish to consider getting a representative. This should always be done if a reconsideration has been denied and the next step is to request a disability hearing ("winging it" at a hearing is a foolish idea). But its likewise a good idea to consider finding representation if the disability application has been denied and the next step is to request a reconsideration appeal. Why do I say this? Because, nationwide, more than 80 percent of all reconsiderations are also denied...meaning that if you get denied on a disability application, you'll probably get denied on a reconsideration, and you'll probably have to go to a hearing, where you'll benefit from real case preparation.