Disability

If We Denied Your Application, You Can Appeal Online

July 18, 2016 • By

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Last Updated: July 18, 2016

q markSocial Security offers you many options to conduct business with us online. Far gone are the days when you needed to visit our offices or call us on the phone to appeal a denial of your disability benefits. Now you can file an appeal online, even if you live outside of the United States!

The online appeals application is simple, convenient, and secure, guiding you through every step of the process. From outlining your rights to an appeal, to publications on the appeals process, a fair review of your Social Security case is right at your fingertips. The online application even allows you to upload supporting documentation, like treatments, doctors, and medical reports, as well as an option to save your submissions.

Submitting all the necessary documents will save time and can help return a faster decision. Here are some things you’ll need when ready to submit an appeal:

  • Doctors, hospitals, medical treatments, and tests since you last gave us medical information;
  • Medicines you are currently taking; and
  • Changes in your medical conditions, daily activities, work, and education.

You can learn more about our appeals process by reading our publication Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim.

Social Security is constantly looking for ways to make our services accessible and readily available when you need them. It’s part of our commitment to delivering world-class service to you and providing you with more options, like an online appeal, to conduct your Social Security business.

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About the Author

Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications

Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications

Comments

  1. tony

    The appeal process should be long to where a person’s work credits expire. They shouldn’t have enough work credits to have two simultaneously applications during the appeal to the federal court. It creates double the work and costing tax payers more money.

    The SSA tried to eliminate the backlog and ended up approving many people who were not disabled.

    People who are denied for SSI by the ALJ are just going to apply again and waste more of the tax payers money. Why speed up the process where the tax payer lose more money?

  2. Melvin l.

    How can I obtain a copy of my previous employers and dates worked?? Also, is the any cooperation with the V.A.? ??

    • Ray F.

      Hi Melvin. To obtain a “Detailed Earnings Information” record, you must complete and mail a request (Form SSA-7050-F4) to the address provided in the form. You can also create a my Social Security account to review your earnings record. For more information, you can call our toll free number at 1-800-772-1213. Representatives are available Monday through Friday between 7:00a.m. and 7:00p.m. We hope this information helps!

  3. Susan L.

    My sister has been waiting for years for disability. They tell her she can clean houses for a living or work at a desk. Her back is so bad that her doctor told her if she were ever rear-ended in a car accident again, she could become paralyzed. Clean houses? Are they crazy? I understand that the percentage of Americans on disability has risen dramatically. People need to seek help for their pain and try to work if possible. There are too many looking to the government for a handout. But, when it hits home, like with my sister, you see the system for what it really is. They try to wear you down and wait you out until you quit in disgust. Work if you can, but if you can’t, get an attorney.

  4. Nancy P.

    Whatever happened to the human touch. It is more reassuring to have a live person to talk to-to help solve these situations. It is too sad that we have to rely on the computer for any situation…which makes it frustrating and anger and everyone does not have a computer or always know how to use one.

  5. tammy

    “If We Denied Your Application, You Can Appeal Online”? What good does that do when the issue is a “Rule” that the Socialist Security System uses to discriminate against “certain” people. If you are a “physically disabled person” (AKA-certain people) and happen to marry an able bodied person, then the SOCIALIST SECURITY system will use special “Rules” to legally discriminate against you and deny you benefits, even if you appeal online.

    The SOCIALIST SECURITY system has caused me a lot of economic hardship all because I married an able bodied person. The SOCIALIST SECURITY system thinks someone who is physically disabled (permanently and totally disabled) marries an “able bodied person”, that somehow magically they are cured of their physical disability and two people can survive off the able bodied persons income. WOW, talk about a bunch of bureaucratic idiotic thinking, that somehow this would not cause a financial hardship….. amazing.

    The rules that the Social Security Administration uses to legally discriminate against persons who are “Adult Disabled Children” who happen to marry an able bodied person, are discriminatory. This is loosely referred to as the “marriage penalty” but I call it exactly what it is, a legal form of discrimination.
    I firmly believe this rule, is an act of bias, prejudice and discrimination against people who (by no fault of their own) are born disabled and happen to marry an able bodied person

    Please write your Congressional Representative and tell them to end this modern day form of Legal Discrimination. In this day of fairness and equality, there are still some people suffering from an outdated and oppressive bureaucratic rule.

  6. Robert P.

    Why can’t these government agencies work together? I have been deemed 90% disabled thru thru the VA, yet, SS doesn’t deem me to be! On appeal at present, after VA doubled my rating in one from 40 to 90 in one appeal. Why can’t the SS realize that the VA is seeing something that obviously they are not, and approve me. WHY must we all go thru this process and stress?? There are new people graduating from colleges every day and have trouble finding jobs due to people being told they need to continue working….leaving less jobs open for new graduates!! We work to earn the right to retire, only to be told we can’t!!

    • Ray F.

      Thank you for your comment Robert, and thank you for your service to our country. If you are receiving benefits from the VA, please keep in mind that the Social Security Act sets out a very strict definition of disability, much different than the requirements for other government programs including veterans benefits. Social Security pays only for total disability. No benefits are payable for partial disability or short-term disability. We use the same five-step process to make a decision on each application. See our Disability Planner: How We Decide If You Are Disabled for more information.

      • Frank

        You’re replies are robotic. Are you a robot or do you just lack a heart?

        People are starving in the streets because SSA denies them the benefits they deserve. Look at all of the lawsuits people have to file taking up taxpayer money.

  7. Aloma M.

    Please look into improving the SSDI and SSI process..for a country as progressive as our great country of America, it is so important to update this element of benefits to those deserving. My daughter has 25 to 30 seizures a month..among with other debilitating chronic conditions…her claim is now with the Appeals Council…she applied initally in June of 2013.
    Your consideration and assistance will be applauded by many.

    • John O.

      This site was not set up to handle specific cases. Some feel that it is Progressivism that is leading to the Country’s destruction. Best of luck with the APR.

      • bob g.

        Mr OMalia: Are you replying on here as an employee of SSA?

        • Ray F.

          Please be aware that our official agency responses will always include the Social Security Administration (SSA) seal, and that we have an official social media team dedicated to posting messages and responses to customer inquiries or comments that specifically address SSA issues.

    • Marie J.

      Check the http://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionate allowances. It announed some new conditions and 225 illnesses that can be approved in 7 to 10 days. You have to ask the social security person to look on that list because, they wont look unless you ask. After I finished giving all my medical conditions and information, I asked the lady to look. She said, “Oh, let me check it for you?”. Social Security workers wont look at the list unless you ask them to look on the list. I found a Social Security News Release dated January 15, 2014 for Immediate Release, by LaVenia J. LaVelle, Press Officer. press.office@ssa.gov.

  8. Sandra J.

    HELP ME! Not The Middle East. Not Africa. Not foreign countries. Help us here in America!

    • M.

      I have always been amazed by how Americans will go above and beyond to help every country imaginable with medical and dental care,food,clothes building homes,adopting needy children in 3rd world countries to bring back to the U.S. DOESN’T ANYONE SEE ALL THE HOMELESS,PENNYLESS,HUNGRY AMERICANS. PEOPLE WHO NEED MEDICAL and DENTAL CARE ,NOT TO MENTION the BABIES and CHILDREN IN NEED OF LOVING FAMILIES TO SHARE THEIR LIVES
      Open your eyes they are all around us and you don’t have to go any further than your “backyard”

  9. Sandra J.

    I have epilepsy and have for 40+ years. I have applied for SSI for 12 years now and have been denied for 12 years now. I have medical documentation from hospitals, doctors, ER, and EMT but still denied. I have proof that I have seizures but am still denied. I have people who have witnessed my seizures but still denied. Why??? SSA has done nothing to help me. They are all crooks imo, thinking only of themselves. I have no job and no healthcare insurance because no one will hire me due to my condition. Just waiting for the feds to fine me for no insurance, hahahah can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.

  10. bettyg

    yes, it is NOT easy to get ssdi benefits!

    it took me 5 yrs. of hell to be approved on my 2nd ssdi app since my lawyer who quit me 4 yrs. into this NEVER submitted a BRIEF to appeals counsel since admin law judge office NEVER gave lawyer or me a copy of the tape of my alj meeting!

    i have 3 drawers full of medical file records!

    NEVER GIVE UP; appeal over & over until after you have had a 1 on 1 with admin law judge meeting!

    bettyg, iowa

    • Tammie

      What do you mean by a one on one meeting with the alj? I have been waiting almost five years and just recently my case was seen by the federal judge. He remandedmy case back to a new alj just a couple of weeks ago me and my federal attorney went before a alj and I am currently waiting for a decision. The hearing was almost2 and half hours long, much longer than the last two hearins with another alj. My first two hearins were with the same alj who denied me twice and was told by the appeals council he was to make a new decision thathe did in fact make 7 procedural error’s. When I went before him he heard the caseand made me wait three months just to deny me again, So my attorney referred my case to a federal attorney and she took my case. She filed a civil law suit against the state I live in and the commissioner deniedne as well, they said they agreed with the alj. If course they did. So my federal attorney filed a civil law suit againsttge stare I live in and 9 months later she net with a federal judge, She called me to tell me that the federal judge agreed that the alj has made many mistakes and recently remanded my case back to a new alj. Like I said as stated above that my hearing was two weeks agoand I am waiting for a new decision. I never heard a one o one like you wrote in your blog. At this hearing there was a vocational expert and e told the judge there was not any jobs I could do. At the very end of my hearing the alj asked me a set if questions which were not asked by the previous alj. One if the questions was did I ever collect any workers comp or any unemployment benefits. I told him no. There was a couple more questions similar to that so I am praying that I get approved this time. This actually was my third hearing which has taken five years. I am 53 years old and I suffered a few strokes, with extensive damage to many parts if my body including damage to the nerves or muscles in my eyes. I had worked 30 years prior to my strokes. I did win my ERISA DISABILITY case a few tears ago which I had purchased short and long-term insurance through Prudential. After two appeals another lawyer I had that specializes in ERISA DISABILITY won my case. The only problem I have with this is that he offsetted my benefits by 80,000. He told the insurance company I WAS RECEIVING STATE disability which was not true. This is why I am so upset because not once has this ever been mentioned to the alj. I am not understanding how could they offset something I never received? Plus how do you offset something I purchased through my employer for thirty years. I understand workers comp because you didn’t pay into that, but not a private disability plan I purchased. Do you know anything about this at all? It has never sat right with me at all. How do you win one and not the other? It seems odd. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

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