The Appeals Council was established on March 1, 1940, and designed to ensure the consistency of the hearing process. Currently, the Appeals Council includes about 68 Administrative Appeals Judges, and many hundreds of supporting staff. For Social Security Disability claims, the Appeals Council serves as the final stop in the Social Security Administration’s review process.
Review at the Appeals Council generally starts after the application for benefits has been denied by an Administrative Law Judge at the hearing level. Once a request for review is made to the Appeals Council, it may grant, deny or dismiss the request for review. If a request for review is granted, the Appeals Council can decide the case (deny or grant) or remand the case (return) to an Administrative Law Judge for a new determination. The Appeals Council review process is time consuming due to the large number of cases it is asked to review. In 2013, the Appeals Council received 157,311 requests for review, and processed 176,251. The average processing time for the Appeals Council was 364 days.
