Sometimes when claimants and their reps appeal a decision, they get their hands on additional evidence that might sway the appeals council’s (AC) decision and help them to win the claim. Unfortunately, just like every other part of the Social Security Disability appeals process, there’s a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork involved to get the information in the hands of the right people.
Steps to Submit Additional Evidence to the Appeals Council
The process of submitting additional evidence can be broken down into several steps.
- Use the request for review form. Form HA-520 has to be turned in with any additional evidence that you want the appeals council to review or they won’t even look at it.
- File for an EOT. Many times, claimants won’t have all of their evidence ready by the initial deadline. When this happens, you need to complete an extension of time form and send it in along with the evidence and the review form.
- How do you send it in? There are three ways to get additional evidence to the appeals council.
- Using the barcode. When you talk to the appeals council staff to get your EOT and review form, they’ll also give you an AC-level barcode. With this, you can mail the additional evidence in and include the barcode as the first page (no cover sheet) or fax everything to their electronic folder. The FAX number and address will both be included with the barcode.
- Using the internet. You can submit additional evidence online by logging into the ERE website, inputting the Social Security number of the claimant, and including the Request ID (RQID) that’s part of the barcode. How do you know which numbers make up the RQID? Simple. It begins with the first non-zero number on the barcode. By entering this information, you make it unnecessary to include the actual barcode.
- Using paper fax. Sometimes, it’s possible that you won’t be able to get a barcode. When this happens, all you need to do is fax the information the old-fashioned way to either the branch fax or 703-605-7101. You should know that using the paper fax option requires the AC staff to do more, so it takes more time.
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