WHAT IS "RECONSIDERATION"?

"Reconsideration" is the next step after Social Security has denied your disability application.  This is your first step in the appeal process.

"Reconsideration" sends your denied claim back to the Disability Determination Service (DDS), the same state agency which recently denied it.  The agency is asked to review your case again and be sure no mistakes were made.

In my view, "Reconsideration" is mainly a rubber stamp denial process.

There aren't a lot of statistics on the process, since Alabama only began using it in October, 2019.  Up until that time, when your claim was denied, you could go straight to a hearing with an administrative law judge (ALJ).  Now, you can't.  You must go through "reconsideration" first.

My feeling is that this process produces awards (approvals) in only about 2 or 3 percent of cases.  As I say, I regard it pretty much as a rubber stamp denial process.  However, you cannot skip this step. 

Your real goal is to get to a hearing before an administrative law judge.  That's the next step following a denial at "Reconsideration."  According to national statistics, your chance of an approval before the ALJ is about 45 percent.  Out of the entire process, the hearing offers you the best chance of being approved.  This is where you want your claim to be.

Unfortunately, many people have their application denied, then they appeal and go to "Reconsideration."  There, they are denied again.  They believed they have appealed and lost, so they just give up.  This is a big, big mistake.

The "real" appeal occurs after "Reconsideration." It's the second appeal that takes you before a judge for a hearing.  This is really where your hope lies.

So, never consider "Reconsideration" to be your appeal.  It is technically your first appeal, but it should never be your final appeal. 

You may wonder why I always use quotation marks around the word "Reconsideration."  That's because I don't really think there is much reconsideration that goes on during this process.  The same agency reviews their own work and pronounces it correct.  They rubber stamp your application "Denied" for the second time and send it back to you.  Only a judge can change it.

I recently saw something shocking about "reconsideration."  The numbers are 2015, but I don't think they have changed much.

---616,917 claimants were denied at "Reconsideration."

---14 percent of those claimants gave up and took no further action.

---530,501 appealed again and went to a hearing before a judge

---Of those who went on to a hearing, 55 percent were awarded benefits

That's almost 300,000 claimants who got paid because they did not stop after a denial at "Reconsideration." 

Who were the losers?  Those who quit after "Reconsideration" lost. 

If you don't understand Social Security disability, talk to someone who does.

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The Forsythe Firm

7027 Old Madison Pike, Suite 108

Huntsville, AL 35806

CALL (256) 799-0297