I Also Got A Letter

[maset22]

Thank God it was favorable. But as i read this eight to ten page letter I saw a point that I dint like " the appeals council may decide to review my decision even thou you dint ask for it to do so" what the ---- is that. they have sixty day's to do so. Please give me some feed back. that took me for a loop. fighting since June 2007.

[jbasser]

Teh rewiew is an option for every decision. It is a Quality assurance check and I have seen the overturn decisions before.

most of the time they are spot on with the award. It does delay getting your SSDI when it occurs but they dont do every claim, only a percentage so you may not even get a review.

J

[free_spirit_etc]

Thank God it was favorable. But as i read this eight to ten page letter I saw a point that I dint like " the appeals council may decide to review my decision even thou you dint ask for it to do so" what the ---- is that. they have sixty day's to do so. Please give me some feed back. that took me for a loop. fighting since June 2007.

Jbasser is correct - this is a component of every decision. The AC has the right to review your case on its own motion (as well as if you request a review). I don't have all the stats now, but these are pretty rare, especially since they are so backlogged now.

They do have to notify you within 60 days if they are going to review your case. If they do not notify you within 60 days, the ALJ decision is binding.

They were doing random reviews - just taking a certain percentage of the cases and reviewing them. I am not sure how many of those they do now. A small percentage. And again, even if they would review your case, they still bound by the conditions of review. They cannot just overturn a decision because they would have decided it differently. They would have to show the judge made an error of law, abused his discretion, there wasn't substantive evidence to support the judge's decision, etc.

I think the most chance you would have to have a review on the AC's motion would be if some other component in Social Security thought the judge made a horrid error. I don't have the regulation right now, but there is a means for another component to question the judge's decision.

Say the Program Service Center was looking at your claim in effectuating your award, and they noticed some glaring errors in the decision. They do not have the authority to overturn the ALJ decision. Only the Appeals Council has that authority. So the Program Service Center can put in a request that the AC review the decision.

Again, I think that is very rare. But it is one of the checks and balances in the system.

Most generally, once you have the ALJ Fully Favorable decision - you are good to go!

Congrats!

Free