HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET SSDI IF YOU HAVE TO APPEAL?



How Long Does It Take To Get SSDI If You Have To Appeal?



 
If you have to appeal your Social Security Disability claim, it may take months or even years to get your disability benefits established. It all depends upon what level of the disability appeal process you are approved at.

If your initial disability claim is denied at the application level and you wish to pursue your claim, you have to file a reconsideration appeal.

The reconsideration is the first appeal that claimants may file and, as a course of action, it is far preferable to starting over with a new disability application that, in all likelihood, would simply be denied again.

Reconsideration appeals generally do not take very long to receive a decision. This is because they are basically just a review of the initial disability determination that was issued on the application. Barring any major errors on the part of the disability examiner who made your initial disability decision, or new medical evidence that would allow the disability examiner making your reconsideration appeal decision to overturn your initial disability decision, your reconsideration appeal will be denied.



The reconsideration appeal rate is poor; roughly about ten to fifteen percent of these appeals are approved. However, claimants who file reconsideration appeals should not be discouraged. Instead, they should just look at the reconsideration appeal as a necessary step toward requesting a hearing (which a claimant cannot request until they have gone through the reconsideration stage).

You need to file a request for an administrative law judge hearing if your reconsideration appeal is denied. The disability hearing provides the best opportunity for claimants who have been denied on their initial claim to be approved. However, it is also the disability level with the longest wait time for a decision. Most of the time that it takes to reach a disability hearing is caused by backlogs that plague most disability hearing offices across the nation. Some disability applicants wait twelve months or more for a hearing to even be scheduled.

There is always the possibility that your disability claim could be denied at the administrative law judge hearing as well. Some disability applicants find themselves using the disability appeal process more than one time and many have attended more than one disability hearing without winning their SSDI benefits. Having said that, though, the statistics indicate that forty percent of claimants who go to a disability hearing without a lawyer will be awarded their disability benefits, while over sixty percent of claimants who go to a disability hearing represented by a social security lawyer will be awarded their disability benefits.


About the Author: Tim Moore is a former Social Security Disability Examiner in North Carolina, has been interviewed by the NY Times and the LA Times on the disability system, and is an Accredited Disability Representative (ADR) in North Carolina. For assistance on a disability application or Appeal in NC, click here.







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