Denial Notice Checklist: What to Find on Your Letter
This checklist walks through a Social Security denial notice one part at a time: the dates, the program, the reasons, and the evidence it relied on. Filled in, it gives you one page with everything needed to talk about the denial and plan the reconsideration request.
Print it blank or type into it on screen. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
What a Social Security denial notice has to include
Federal rules require the notice to explain what was decided and why. For a disability denial, it must also lay out the evidence the decision was based on and tell you about your right to ask for reconsideration. That makes the notice a checklist in its own right, if you know which parts to pull out.
This worksheet does not calculate a deadline. Write down both dates and keep the envelope; the date the letter arrived can matter if the timing is ever questioned.
Sources: 20 CFR 404.904; 20 CFR 404.901.
Denial Notice Checklist
- Date printed on the notice
- Date the notice actually arrived
- Program the notice decides: SSDI, SSI, or both
- Medical denial, or non-medical (income, resources, work credits)?
- The reasons the notice gives, in your own words
- Providers the notice lists as evidence
- Providers you saw who are not on that list
- Anything the notice describes inaccurately, such as a past job
- Questions to ask about the denial
Taking the denial notice checklist into a conversation
Bring this page and the notice itself to any conversation about the denial, whether with Social Security or with a representative. If you would like the firm to read it with you, the First-Call Checklist covers what else to have ready.
Talk with Downard & Associates about your claim
Downard & Associates represents adults with SSDI and SSI claims in every state by phone and video, from applications through Appeals Council review. Sending an inquiry starts a conversation; it does not file anything with Social Security. We respond to inquiries within 3 business hours.
Representation before Social Security nationwide: 42 U.S.C. 406; 20 CFR 404.1705.