A Request for Reconsideration with the Social Security Office

Here's a statement I found posted on a forum: "A Request for Reconsideration involves an informal hearing with the social security office."

Is this correct? Not even slightly.

If you file a claim for either social security disability or supplemental security income (also known as SSI disability) and your claim gets turned down, then you have the option of filing for request for a reconsideration. Reconsideration is the first level of appeal and a reconsideration should be requested within sixty days of being turned down on a claim for disability.

Reconsiderations, however, do not involve hearings, formal or informal, and they are not even handled by the social security office other than receiving the request for reconsideration.

Here is how the process works when it comes to doing a request for a reconsideration---

1. The claimant makes a request for reconsideration. This is done usually after a notice of denial on a disability application has been received.

2. The claimant is sent the appeal forms to file a request for reconsideration.

3. The claimant fills out the reconsideration forms and sends them back to the social security office.

4. The social security office sends the claimant's file to the state agency that is responsible for making decisions on reconsiderations. In most states, this agency is known as DDS or the disability determination services (in other states, it may be known as disability determination unit, disability determination division, or the bureau of disability determination, but these are all essentially the same agency).

5. The state agency that receives the claimant's file (along with the request for reconsideration) will assign the file to a disability examiner.

6. The disability examiner will review the file (and usually gather and evaluate medical records) and make a decision to either approve or deny the claim for social security disability or ssi disability benefits.




Return to the Social Security Disability SSI Benefits Blog




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