Appeals Council Update
September 15, 2009
Author: Catherine M. Callery (Kate)| Louise M. Tarantino
A few years ago, it seemed as though the demise of the Appeals Council was near. Now, however, it looks the Appeals Council is alive and – depending on your perspective – well.
As advocates will recall, the implementation of DSI (Disability Service Improvement), which called for the substantial changes in the powers of the Appeals Council, has been limited in Region I and is unlikely to be rolled out elsewhere. In fact, the Appeals Council has been expanding its staff. A second site has been opened in Baltimore with five new branches, and new Administrative Appeals Judges (AAJs) and support staff are being hired.
Advocates should bear this in mind when filing appeals. These new Appeals Council judges and analysts may not be all that up to speed on Social Security law. Thus, it may be more important than ever to present cogent arguments to the Appeals Council. If a blatant harmful error - perhaps made by one of the many new ALJs and decision-writers who themselves might not be up to speed - is not flagged and critiqued, the Appeals Council may well deny review.
The Appeals Council has also continued its slow journey into the twenty-first century. Nearly 60% of the cases handled at the Appeals Council are now electronic. The Appeals Council has also begun a pilot program at five of its branches in Falls Church that is testing the electronic submission of evidence using the Electronic Records Express (ERE), papers document with barcodes that are sent to a private scanning contractors, and FECS (“Front End Capture Server”) faxing. Advocates and claimants will be notified if their cases are included in the pilot.
Finally, the Appeals Council continues to slog its way through its own backlog. Social Security reports that the average Appeals Council processing time for Fiscal Year 2008 was 238 days, down from a high of approximately 500 in 2000. It granted review in only 26.1% of its cases, down from 30.3% in FY 2007. It remanded 22.8%, compared to 27.2% in FY 2007. Its reversal rate remained about the same, at 2.6%.
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