HOW TO APPEAL A BAD SOCIAL SECURITY DECISION

Social Security makes "bad decisions" every day. Most of the time, they will routinely deny the initial disability claim.  Just a fact.  What matters is what happens next.  The denial must be appealed within 60 days.  There are basically 3 ways to file an appeal within the 60 day deadline:

 1.  Go to the Social Security office.  You can file an appeal in just a few minutes at your local Social Security office.  You may want to call and make an appointment, rather than just showing up, to reduce the wait.

 2.  Appeal online at socialsecurity.gov.  Click on the Disability icon, then click "Start a New Appeal."  It's a matter of filling in the online form.

 3.  Appoint an attorney or representative to file the appeal for you.  You won't be charged just for filing the appeal.  However, the representative can eventually charge you a fee for working on the case if you win and recover past due benefits.  Ask the attorney/representative about his or her fee before engaging services.

 The important thing to remember is that you have only have 60 days to file the appeal.  Wait longer than that and you have to file a new application and start over, which wastes time and costs you money.  (Actually, you can stretch the appeal deadline to 65 days by using the extra 5 days for "mailing time," but why wait)?  If you wait more than 65 days to file, your appeal will be dismissed.




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