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If your disability claim (social security disability or SSI disability) is denied at the initial level, which is the application level, then you may appeal that decision. You have 65 actual days from the date of the decision letter in which to do this. The letter itself will indicate that you have only sixty days, but, in truth, the social security administration gives denied claimants an additional five days to account for mailing forms in. The first level of appeal is known as "reconsideration" and the actual appeal request is known as a "request for reconsideration". Reconsiderations have been described by many who work in the disability system (and by those who have personally gone through the reconsideration stage) as simply a rehashing of the initial disability application. And to a great extent, this is true. Not much changes, procedurally, on a reconsideration. Reconsiderations are sent to the same state agency that makes decisions on applications for disability (in most states, this agency is known as the disability determination division, disability determination services, or the bureau of disability determination) and they are handled in exactly the same manner as applications. Records are gathered and evaluated and the decision process is the same as with initial claims. What are the differences between a disability application and the request for reconsideration. As we said, procedurally, there aren't any differences, other than the fact that a different disability claims specialist, or examiner, will be reviewing, or reconsidering, the claim. Statistically, however, there is a great difference in the outcomes of reconsiderations. Amazingly, though disability applications tend to average a national denial rate of 70 percent, reconsiderations are denied at the average rate of 85 percent. Very few initial disability decisions are reversed at the reconsideration appeal level, and most individuals who have worked in the system would simply argue that this is because reconsiderations are sent to the same disability agency for processing and the same rules and regulations are used to make the medical determination. Does this mean that you shouldn't bother filing a request for reconsideration? Not at all. Because if you get denied on a request for reconsideration, you then have the option of filing a request for hearing before an administrative law judge. And claimants at hearings, who have already been denied at least twice before (more if they've been through the disability system more than once, of course), tend to have a greater chance of being awarded benefits. With representation, the chances of winning have been shown to rise to as much as sixty-two percent. 
Social Security Disability and SSI Disability Information
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