After a Disability Denial: What to Check and What to Do Next
A disability denial starts a 60-day window to request reconsideration, the first appeal stage. Social Security counts those days from when you receive the notice, which it assumes is five days after the date printed on it. Start with the notice itself: its date, its program, and its reasons.
Getting this letter is hard, especially after months of waiting. A denial at this stage is not the last word on your claim. It is a decision on the file as it stood, and the appeal process exists so someone can look at it again with more in front of them. What happens next depends on two things: filing on time, and adding what the first review did not have. This page covers what the notice tells you, how the deadline is counted, what reconsideration involves, and what to gather first.
Where this page sits
- Application
- Initial decisionYou are here
- Reconsideration
- Hearing
- Appeals Council review
What does your Social Security denial notice tell you?
Your notice is the most useful document you have right now. Read it the way you would read a denied insurance claim: find the decision, find the reason, and find the deadline before anything else. Federal rules require the notice to explain what was decided and why, and for a disability denial it must also lay out the evidence the decision was based on.
- The date printed on the notice. This date sets your deadline. Write the day the letter actually arrived next to it, and keep the envelope.
- Which program the notice covers. If you applied for both SSDI and SSI, check whether this notice decides one program or both.
- The reasons and the evidence. Compare the doctors, clinics, and hospitals listed with the ones you actually saw. A provider missing from this list is something to add on appeal.
- Your right to appeal. This part explains how to ask for reconsideration. Note whether the denial is medical or about something else, such as income, resources, or work credits.
Medical and non-medical denials take different paths. A medical denial goes back to an examiner at your state’s Disability Determination Services office; a non-medical denial, such as one about income or resources, is reviewed by a Social Security employee.
Sources: 20 CFR 404.904; SSA, Request reconsideration.
How the 60-day disability appeal deadline is counted
You have 60 days to request reconsideration, and the count starts on the day you receive the notice. Social Security assumes you received it five days after the date printed on it, unless you can show it arrived later. The same 60-day rule applies to SSDI and to SSI.
A notice dated March 3 is treated as received March 8, and the 60 days start counting from March 8. If the letter actually arrived later, the envelope and a note of the date it came help show that.
If the deadline has already passed, the claim is not automatically over, but the path is narrower. You can ask Social Security in writing for more time, and it will extend the deadline if you show good cause. Examples in the rules include a serious illness that kept you from contacting Social Security, a death or serious illness in your immediate family, records destroyed by fire or accident, a notice you never received, and incorrect information from Social Security about when or how to appeal. Good cause works like a safety valve, not a plan, so nobody should count on it in place of filing on time.
Sources: 20 CFR 404.901; 20 CFR 404.909; 20 CFR 404.911; 20 CFR 416.1409.
What reconsideration involves for SSDI and SSI claims
Reconsideration is a fresh review of the claim on paper. For a medical denial, an examiner at your state’s Disability Determination Services office reviews your request along with the original application, and you can send new evidence for that review. The examiner decides based on everything in the file, old and new.
You can start the request on Social Security’s website, upload the Request for Reconsideration form (SSA-561), or call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778) and say you want to request reconsideration. Keep a copy or confirmation of whatever you file.
It also helps to plan past this stage. Ray Akers, the firm’s managing attorney, puts the expectation to clients plainly, and it is the same advice we give anyone reading this page:
“Assume a denial in the first 2 rounds.”Ray Akers, Managing Attorney, Downard & Associates
That is planning, not pessimism. The records you add now become part of the same file a judge reads if the claim goes to a hearing, so the work done at reconsideration carries forward either way.
Sources: SSA, Request reconsideration; 20 CFR 404.913; 20 CFR 404.920.
What to gather before you request reconsideration
None of this has to be complete before you file. The deadline comes first, and records can follow. Use this list to get organized, then print it and keep it with the notice.
- Every page of the denial notice, and the envelope it came in
- The date the notice actually arrived, written on the first page
- Every doctor, clinic, hospital, and therapist you have seen since you applied, with approximate dates
- New tests, imaging, or specialist visits since you applied
- Medication changes, including side effects you have reported to a provider
- Changes in work: a job you stopped, hours you cut, or tasks you can no longer do
- Anything the notice gets wrong, such as a missing provider or a job described inaccurately
For more room to write, use the Denial Notice Checklist and the Medical Provider Organizer. Both are blank worksheets, and nothing you write on them is sent anywhere.
Should you file a new disability application instead of appealing?
The biggest difference is the filing date. A new application gets a new date, and the filing date limits how far back benefits can be paid. For SSDI, benefits can reach back up to 12 months before the month you apply. For SSI, payments start no earlier than the month after you apply. An appeal keeps the original application, and its date, in play.
There are situations where a new application makes sense, and the right call depends on why the claim was denied. Talk it through with someone who has read the notice before you let an appeal deadline pass in favor of starting over.
Sources: 20 CFR 404.621; 20 CFR 416.335.
How Downard & Associates helps after a disability denial
Reconsideration is one of the stages we handle for adults with SSDI and SSI claims. When you contact us after a denial, we read the notice with you, look for what the first review was missing, request the records that fill those gaps, and file the request on time.
We represent clients in every state by phone and video from our office in Lebanon, Tennessee, under the federal rules that allow representation before Social Security nationwide (42 U.S.C. 406; 20 CFR 404.1705(a)). Federal court cases go to a trusted affiliate firm. We do not handle claims for children, VA claims or appeals, or cases where Social Security is stopping benefits you already receive.
An inquiry starts a conversation with our team; it does not file your appeal, so if your deadline is close, file with Social Security first. We respond to inquiries within 3 business hours.
Sources: 42 U.S.C. 406; 20 CFR 404.1705.
Questions people ask after a disability denial
Can I check the status of my reconsideration request?
Yes. Social Security lets you check the status of an application or appeal online through its status page, or you can call 1-800-772-1213.
Can I send medical records after I file the reconsideration request?
Yes. Filing the request protects the deadline, and evidence can follow while the reconsideration is pending. Send it as soon as you have it, because the decision is made on what is in the file at the time.
What if my denial says my income or resources are too high?
That is a non-medical denial, usually tied to SSI’s limits on income and resources, and it is appealed through a non-medical reconsideration on the same 60-day deadline. Gather bank statements, benefit letters, and records for any income or asset the notice lists, especially anything it counts that you no longer have.
What if my letter says my benefits are stopping, not that my application was denied?
That is a cessation decision from a continuing disability review, and it follows different rules from a new claim, including the chance for a disability hearing at reconsideration. Downard & Associates does not handle these cases. Read the notice for its deadline and contact Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.
Sources: SSA, Check application or appeal status; 20 CFR 404.913.