Why SSA denied your claim
Every SSDI denial notice includes a Personalized Disability Explanation identifying the specific reason. The most common denial reasons in Michigan are:
- Not disabled — medical. DDS found your impairment is not severe enough or not expected to last 12 months.
- Not disabled — vocational. DDS concluded you can perform your past work or other work in the national economy.
- Substantial gainful activity. Your earnings exceeded the SGA limit ($1,620/month in 2026).
- Not insured. Insufficient work credits or your Date Last Insured has passed under 42 U.S.C. § 423(c).
- Failure to cooperate. Missed consultative exam, unreturned forms, or unresponsive updates.
- Failure to follow prescribed treatment. Under 20 C.F.R. § 404.1530, denial can follow if you would recover with prescribed treatment and refuse it without good reason.
Stage 1 — Request for Reconsideration
File Form SSA-561 (Request for Reconsideration) online at ssa.gov, by mail, or at a Michigan SSA field office. You must file within 60 days of the date you receive the denial (SSA presumes receipt 5 days after mailing). Reconsideration is a fresh look by a new DDS examiner and consultant. Approval rates are low, but the step is mandatory before you can request an ALJ hearing.
Attach any new medical records, treating-source statements, or functional evidence — even records that predate the initial application if they were not in the file.
Stage 2 — Administrative Law Judge hearing
File Form HA-501 (Request for Hearing by ALJ) within 60 days of the reconsideration denial. Your case is assigned to a Michigan Office of Hearings Operations location — Detroit, Livonia, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Oak Park, or Mount Pleasant. Hearings are held in person, by video, or by phone. This is where the majority of Michigan SSDI cases are actually approved.
Between the request and the hearing (currently 10-14 months of wait), we develop the medical record, obtain treating-source opinions, prepare you to testify, and prepare cross-examination of SSA's vocational and medical experts.
Stage 3 — Appeals Council
If the ALJ denies your claim, file Form HA-520 (Request for Review) within 60 days. The Appeals Council can deny review, affirm, reverse, or remand to the ALJ for a new hearing. Most Appeals Council decisions are remands — the case goes back to the ALJ for correction of legal or evidentiary errors identified in the briefing.
Stage 4 — Federal court
After Appeals Council review, you have 60 days to file a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern or Western District of Michigan under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). The court reviews whether the ALJ decision is supported by substantial evidence and free of legal error. If not, the court remands under sentence four or sentence six of § 405(g). Attorney fees at this stage are governed by 42 U.S.C. § 406(b) and the Equal Access to Justice Act (28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)).
Why appeals beat reapplications
A new application resets the clock. Under 42 U.S.C. § 423(b), SSDI retroactive benefits are capped at 12 months before the application date (minus the 5-month waiting period). Every month you spend on a doomed reapplication instead of an appeal is a month of retroactive benefits you can never recover. And under administrative res judicata, a prior unappealed denial forecloses re-litigation of the same time period on a new application.
Denied? The clock is already running.
Call Jay Trucks & Associates the day you get the notice. We'll read the denial, identify the exact reason, and file the correct appeal before the 60 days runs out — free of charge and with zero obligation.