If you are denied at your Social Security hearing by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), you have the right to appeal the judge’s decision to the Social Security Appeals Council.  

To do this, you need to file form HA-520-U5 “Request for Review of Hearing Decision/Order.”  You only have 60 + 5 days to get the appeal to the Appeals Council from the date stamped on the judge’s decision (5 days to receive the decision and 60 days to deliver the appeal).  

Note:  The appeal must be delivered by the 65th day!  Unlike filing your taxes, postmarking the letter on the 65th day is not enough.  The appeal must be in the Appeal Council’s hands no later than the last day. 

There is the possibility of filing late with the Appeal Council’s permission, but that is not something you want to count on.  

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about the appeal.

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DisabilityAppeal.com has a interesting article on the importance of requesting the hearing tape if you are denied at hearing.
In many instances, once the tapes are obtained and listened to, parts of the record will be inaudible. And in a lot of cases can’t produce the tapes at all because they have been purportedly lost (usually when an ALJ said something during the disability benefits hearing that may reflect poorly upon him). An incomplete or missing record, when noted in a legal brief sent to the Appeals Council … results in an almost automatic sending of the …

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