The guidelines used by the Social Security Administration to determine when an existing beneficiary's eligibility will be reviewed are fairly subjective. However, when a claimant receives a fully favorable decision from an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), the decision usually states a specific time period when the case will be reviewed again by the SSA.
Lately, ALJs have been setting very short periods for disability reviews. This all seems to be part of a trend at the national level, to make Social Security Disability guidelines stricter than ever before. (Don't be fooled by the ramblings of those who are maliciously leading everyone to believe that obtaining SSD is easy.)
For example, just a few days ago I got a fully favorable decision that stated that the claimant's case had to be reviewed again in 12 months. This is an extremely short period. In reality, most cases that are granted are reviewed between 18 to 36 months.
When a case is granted prior to a hearing with an ALJ, the SSA uses certain specific guidelines for determining when a case will be reviewed. However, the exact interpretation of these rules can be a bit subjective. Here is the terminology used by Social Security used to determine when a case will be reviewed. At what point in time your case will be reviewed, depends of where your expected medical improvement falls in relation to the following terms:
- If "medical improvement" is "expected", your condition will be reviewed within 18 months.
- If "medical improvement" in your case is "possible", your case will be reviewed in approximately 3 years.
- If "medical improvement" is "not expected", your case will be reviewed in 5 to 7 years.
