How Does the Appeals Council Review a Disability Denial?
The Appeals Council is the last internal step in the disability appeals process. If an administrative law judge denies your disability claim or dismisses your hearing request, you can ask the Council to review it within 60 days of receiving the decision, and Social Security assumes you received it five days after the date on it. The Council doesn’t hold a new hearing. It reads the record and decides whether the judge made a legal error, reached a conclusion the evidence doesn’t support, or missed new evidence that would likely change the result.
Most requests are turned down. In fiscal year 2025, the Council granted review in 16.83% of the cases it closed. Nearly all of those, 15.54% of all cases, were sent back to a judge for another look rather than decided by the Council itself. About 42,000 requests were waiting in mid-2026.
How to ask for review
Social Security gives three ways to file, on its Appeals Council page:
- Online, through the request for review application.
- On paper, with Form HA-520, mailed to Social Security, Office of Appellate Operations, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21235-6401, or faxed or mailed to your local office.
- Through your local Social Security office or hearing office, or by calling 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778).
Send any new evidence, and any comments on what the judge got wrong, with your request. If you want to make a fuller argument, you can ask for a chance to file a brief. If you’re late, explain why in writing and ask for more time; the Council extends the deadline for good cause, such as serious illness or wrong information from Social Security, and otherwise can dismiss the request.
To confirm the Council received your request, ask your local office or hearing office, or call its Claimant and Public Assistance Branch at 1-877-670-2722 (703-605-8000). Social Security asks people not to make repeated status requests, and to ask for copies of hearing recordings and exhibits only when they really need them, because those requests add time.
What the Council looks for
By regulation, the Council reviews a case when:
- the judge appears to have abused their discretion,
- there’s an error of law,
- the decision isn’t supported by substantial evidence,
- the case raises a broad policy or procedural issue affecting the public, or
- you send additional evidence that meets the new-evidence rule below.
In practice, the problems it cites most often when sending cases back are about how the judge handled evidence. Social Security’s own data on fiscal year 2025 remands:
| Most cited reason for remand, FY 2025 | Share of reasons cited |
|---|---|
| Evidence in the record not considered or not exhibited | 5.0% |
| Not explaining how well a medical opinion was supported | 4.9% |
| Finding an opinion persuasive without adequate explanation | 4.8% |
| Vocational expert testimony conflicting with the job dictionary, such as sit/stand needs or time off task | 4.7% |
| Medical opinions not identified or discussed | 4.1% |
| Not explaining whether a medical opinion was consistent with the record | 3.7% |
Swipe sideways to see the full table →
A strong request points to errors like these: a doctor’s medical opinion the decision never mentions, limits the judge accepted in your residual functional capacity but left out of the questions to the vocational expert, or a finding with no explanation.
The new-evidence rule
The Council is not a place to rebuild your case. Under its rule on additional evidence, it considers new records only if all of these are true:
- it’s new and material,
- it relates to the period on or before the date of the judge’s decision,
- there’s a reasonable probability it would change the outcome, and
- you have good cause for not sending it before the hearing: Social Security misled you, a physical, mental, educational or language limitation stopped you, or something unusual and outside your control happened, such as a serious illness, a death in the family, records destroyed by fire, or records you tried hard to get that didn’t arrive in time.
Records about a condition that started or got worse after the judge’s decision usually don’t qualify, because they’re about a later period. If the Council rejects your evidence for that reason, its notice tells you that you can file a new application, and if you do so within six months, your Appeals Council request date counts as the filing date for the new claim. That can protect months of benefits.
What the Council can do
The Council can:
- deny review, which makes the judge’s decision final,
- dismiss the request, for example if it’s late without good cause,
- grant review and send the case back to a judge, who must follow the Council’s instructions and often holds a new hearing, or
- grant review and issue its own decision, which can affirm, change or reverse the judge’s decision.
You can ask to present oral argument; the Council grants it only if your case raises an important question of law or policy or if argument would help it reach a proper decision.
Watch out: When the Council reviews a case, it can look at every issue the judge decided, including the ones decided in your favor. If you were approved with a later onset date than you wanted, appealing puts the approval itself back on the table. Talk to a representative before appealing a partly favorable decision.
The Council can also act on its own. Within 60 days of a judge’s decision, including an approval, it can choose a case for review through random or selective sampling before benefits are paid, and send it back to a judge.
While your request is pending
There’s no published average wait, and cases vary. In the first three quarters of fiscal year 2026, the Council closed between about 5,200 and 10,600 requests a month, with roughly 42,000 to 46,000 waiting at any time.
While the request is pending, you generally can’t file a new application for the same benefit. The exception is a new critical or disabling condition that began after the judge’s decision, such as a terminal illness, a compassionate allowance condition, or one that meets a listing; in that case you can ask to file a new claim. Keep treating, and keep your address current, but don’t expect records from after the hearing decision to change the Council’s review.
After the Council acts
If the Council denies review or rules against you, you have 60 days from receiving its notice to file a civil lawsuit in federal district court. There’s a filing fee, and Social Security prepares the official record for the court. You can ask the Council in writing for more time to file in court if you have good cause.
If the case is sent back to a judge, you’re back at the hearing stage, often with a new hearing.
A new application is another option at any point after a final denial. A final decision generally binds a later claim on the same facts and issues, so a new application usually covers only the time after the period already decided, and it may mean a later start date for back pay, so weigh that against continuing the appeal.