What To Do If Your Disability Case is Denied

Some American working class citizen come to the point in their lives when they find out that they become disabled due to a physical impairment/illness and can no longer perform on their present jobs or cannot hold down any kind of jobs anymore. To compensate for the income loss, they will go to file for disability insurance claims under the programs of Social Security – Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income.

Initially, after filing for the disability insurance claims, they believe for a while that everything will go smoothly for them. Alas, when they first applied for the Social Security Disability Benefits, very few claimants were ever told how long the process of eventually securing their claims might take. That’s because of an unfortunate fact, that 60-70% of claims for disability are denied at the initial level. During reconsideration level, even more are denied, up to 80-85%. Because of this, processing for social security disability benefits may take up to 2 ˝ years.

If you’re one of the many who filed for disability benefits claims and have received that first notification letter from the Social Security Administration (SSA) that your case is denied, don’t panic! Also, since we also given you the statistics of social security disability claims being denied, realize this reality and do not doubt the strength of your case or the severity of your impairments. Nor do you hesitate to file for appeal for this is necessary. Don’t fall into the trend of not appealing your claim or file a brand new claim!

So, now that your claim was denied, what do you do, now? Don’t wait out idly, request for an appeal immediately! There is a 60-day deadline, time enough for you to file the appeal. The appeal to ask for is a request for reconsideration and you have to go about this yourself, personally even if you have a representation. This is simply to have the appeal request “officially” on record at the SSA office where you filed your initial claim.

What will happen if you fail to file for appeal within the 60 day period? The answer to this is that you have lost all your appeal rights and will start over at the very beginning – with a new Social Security Disability or SSI application, which is unfortunate for you because, first you could have the best chance of winning a claim and being awarded benefits if you had gone through the social security disability appeals process. Second point, filing another appeal entirely is a waste of valuable time. Subsequent applications will likely be denied for the same reasons as the first application.

So, don’t wait out forever feeling sorry for yourself once your case is denied! Contact the social security office and your attorney or non-attorney representative immediately to avoid missing an appeal deadline.

Lala B. is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

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