How Long Does It Take For Me To Get A Decision After I Apply?

It generally takes anywhere from thirty to ninety days to get a decision on your initial disability claim.  If your initial disability application is denied, you must appeal your denial by filing a request for reconsideration appeal.  Your reconsideration appeal takes about sixty days to receive a decision.  If the reconsideration appeal is denied, you must appeal this denial by filing a request for an administrative law judge disability hearing. For most disability applicants, this level of the disability process is the longest and most frustrating. Due to large hearing backlogs at most disability hearing’s offices, many disability applicants must wait twelve months or more to get a disability hearing.   While the wait time for a disability hearing can cause significant emotional and financial hardship for disability applicants, this level of the disability appeal process also offers them the best chance of being approved.  The national disability hearing approval rate is about sixty–five percent, which is very good if you consider that another ten percent of cases are dismissed rather than denied. The denial rate for disability hearings is about twenty-five percent and that is the lowest denial rate of any level of the Social Security disability process.