The Disability Quality Branch is in charge of pulling disability claims to see whether or not the employees of the Social Security Administration (SSA) handled the claims properly. About one in every one hundred claims is pulled at random. These claims may have already gone through processing or may still be in the processing stage. Whether a claim has been approved or denied does not matter. The Disability Quality Branch pulls cases at random so it reviews cases that have been both approved and denied. The goal of these reviews is to ensure that the disability examiners who are processing the Social Security Disability claims have followed the practices and procedures of the SSA when making a decision on whether or not to approve an application for Social Security Disability benefits.
If your case is pulled during processing, it may lengthen the amount of time that it takes to process your Social Security Disability claim. This is because the Disability Quality Branch will be checking your claim for accuracy, technicalities and thoroughness. It can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months for the branch to completely review a single case. The time spent on the case normally depends on the complexity of the case in question.
It is possible for the Disability Quality Branch to deny a claim that was previously approved. If you have been approved for Social Security Disability benefits and the Disability Quality Branch decides to deny your case, you have a right to appeal the decision. When appealing such an action, you may wish to retain the services of a Social Security Disability attorney to protect the benefits that you have been receiving.
