What Happens After a Disability Hearing Has Been Held?

After you've attended your disability hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), your disability file will remain at the hearings office (the Office of Adjudication and Review, or ODAR, formerly known as the Office of Hearings and Appeals, or OHA) until the ALJ makes his or her decision. Once the administrative law judge has made his or her decision, the decision is actually written by staff decision writers at the hearing office and then reviewed by the judge. When the judge is ready to issue the decision, your disability file will be sent to the Social Security office from where it originated.

What Happens Next?

Denials. If your disability claim was denied, your file will be held there in case of appeal, and you will sent a notice of denial and instructions on how to appeal (see below).

Approvals. If your disability claim was approved, a Social Security representative will check to see if you have been working above the substantial gainful activity (SGA) level since you filed your claim. What happens if you've done what's considered substantially gainful work (generally, this means $1,010 per month in 2012) depends on the circumstances:

• If the work was within 12 months of the onset date set by the judge (the established onset date), and you are still working, your claim will be denied.
• If the work started after the first 12 months of disability according to your established onset date, the SSA representative will determine whether your work falls under a trial work program exception (TWP/EPE). 
• If you are not still working but the SSA representative feels your work may mean your disability onset date should be moved later than the judge thought, the representative can send your file back to Disability Determination Services (DDS), where a claims examiner will determine what your real onset date should be. You can appeal the decision of the DDS examiner to an ALJ hearing. If you can convince the judge that the work was an unsuccessful work attempt, your disability onset date could stay the same.

In addition, for SSI cases, the representative will check to see that your income and resources are still below the limits for SSI eligibility.

Notice of Award. If the Social Security representative doesn't find anything wrong with your eligibility, your file will be sent to a payment processing center and you will be sent a Notice of Award letter telling you whether the judge gave you a fully favorable or partially favorable decision (both are approvals; the difference between fully favorable and partially favorable is whether the judge agreed with your alleged onset date, which can change your backpay).

The Notice of Award letter will explain in detail how much your benefits will be as well as when these benefits can be expected to arrive. How long after the hearing can you expect to get a decision and your first payments? The answer varies depending on where in the country you live and how backlogged your regional office and payment center are. (For more information, see our article on how long it takes for an ALJ's decision.)

Appealing the Decision

If you disagree with the judge's decision -- that is, you were denied benefits or you disagree with the disability onset date the judge gave you -- you can appeal to the Appeals Council. The Notice of Award letter gives you the deadline for appealing an ALJ decision: 60 days after you receive the hearing notice.

You can request an appeal by writing to the SSA and requesting an Appeals Council review or by completing Form HA–520 (Request for Review of Hearing Decision/Order). 

Is it worth it to appeal one more time, or should you start a new application? (You can no longer have an Appeals Council review and a new disability application open at the same time.) It may help you decide your next steps to read more about your chances of winning an Appeals Council Review.