What Is a Social Security Disability Reconsideration?
Social Security disability claimants whose initial applications for disability are denied have 60 days from receipt of denial to file an appeal, and that first appeal is called a Request for Reconsideration.
Reconsideration takes on average about 90 days, and only 15% of reconsideration appeals are granted. However, reconsideration is a necessary step before the hearing level, where 55% of appeals are granted.
At reconsideration a different team of disability examiners will evaluate your claim. The SSA will not make a medical determination at this level. That determination does not occur until after the second appeal and a hearing is held.
If you cannot work and your initial application has been denied, I encourage you to file an appeal for reconsideration and then to appeal its likely denial.
It is after you have appealed your reconsideration denial that I can help you, for I focus on helping claimants with their hearings. That is the stage where a knowledgeable disability attorney can provide the most benefit.
Until you reach that post-reconsideration stage, I encourage you to rely on this website’s application and appeals articles for assistance, including:
Tips for applying
Tips for appealing
The disability evaluation process
- Answers to 9 common questions
- Examples of who is and who is not disabled
- The sequential evaluation process
- A large bureaucracy
- Glossary