04/30/2026
The Social Security Disabilty/SSI appeal process can be long and complex. In the past if a claimant was initially denied the next step would be to request review by an Administrative Law Judge. Within this system was a process known as reconsideration, which, allowed for a second look at the claim. It was principally used for non-medical denials as a way to speed up review and correct mistakes made at the initial level. Several years ago Social Security mandated reconsideration on all initial denials. The agency believed this would reduce wait times and offer an quicker alternative to resolve obvious errors. Time has proven that this approach has not worked. Currently around 84 percent of reconsiderations are denied again and require a review by an Administrative Law Judge anyway. The wait times vary dramatically. In the past few years this stage took many months with some cases taking over a year. Recently we’ve noticed that the reconsideration process seems to have sped up with decisions in weeks, raising the question of if there is any meaningful review taking place. A bill was just introduced in Congress to eliminate the requirement that claimants undergo the reconsideration process. Below is the press release.
The Official U.S. Congressional website of Congresswoman Valerie Foushee
