Can I Apply for Social Security Disability More Than Once?

If your claim is denied, you have multiple options to try again

Andy Markowitz and Phil Pruitt,

Updated October 17, 2025

AARP

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Updated October 17, 2025

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Chris Gash

In this story

Retroactive benefits • Odds of success • Your condition • Deadlines to appeal • Keep in mind

There is no limit on the number of times you can apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). But if your initial claim is denied, appealing the ruling may be a better option than starting over with a new application. It all depends on the particulars of your case.

Unless you are basing your new claim on a different medical condition from the one you cited before, disability lawyers generally counsel against starting over. “We would almost always recommend appealing instead of reapplying,” says Jennifer Cronenberg, senior counsel at the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives, a professional association for disability attorneys and advocates.

“Now, there might be a few very rare scenarios where a new application would be prudent,” she says. Those depend on the specifics of your case: On what grounds was your initial application denied? Has your medical situation changed, and if so, how? Can you provide new or better evidence that you now meet Social Security’s definition of disability — an illness or injury that prevents you from doing most paid work for at least a year?

A lawyer or professional advocate well-versed in disability law and Social Security procedures can help you weigh the pros and cons of reapplying versus appealing in light of your circumstances. Here are some general considerations.

Retroactive benefits

The date you notify the Social Security Administration (SSA) of your intent to file for disability benefits is called your protective filing date. If the claim is approved, you could get back pay, or past-due benefits, going back to that date.

The protective filing date remains in force throughout the four stages of the appeals process — reconsideration, administrative law judge (ALJ) hearing, review by Social Security’s Appeals Council and a federal court suit. (The stages are the same for SSDI and SSI, the two disability benefit programs administered by the SSA.) If you file a new claim, you get a new, more recent protective date, and thus less back pay if you eventually win.

That’s why Cronenberg says she almost always leans toward an appeal. “Not only do you preserve a longer period of potential past-due benefits, but you also move one step closer to a hearing before an administrative law judge,” she says.

Odds of success

Preserving that one step — that is, not going back to square one of the claims process — can have a real impact on your chances of being awarded benefits.

From 2020 to 2024, the approval rate for disability cases that reached the hearing stage was 49 percent, according to SSA data, compared to 38 percent for initial applications and just 16 percent for reconsiderations.

Odds of success

Preserving that one step — that is, not going back to square one of the claims process — can have a real impact on your chances of being awarded benefits.

“If I already have an initial claim denial, I want to do everything I can to get to that hearing stage as soon as possible, where my odds of award are statistically better,” Cronenberg says.

Your condition

If your medical condition is roughly the same as when you previously applied for benefits, a new application is likely to meet the same fate as the old one, unless you have gathered new medical evidence about its severity. Such evidence can also be presented in an appeal, preserving the advantages noted above.

Reapplying may be a good option if you are seeking benefits due to a different medical condition from the one that prompted a prior filing, or on the basis of an existing impairment that has markedly worsened since your previous claim.

Deadlines to appeal

“If I already have an initial claim denial, I want to do everything I can to get to that hearing stage as soon as possible, where my odds of award are statistically better,” Cronenberg says.

Your condition

Deadlines to appeal

You have 60 days from the date of an adverse ruling on a benefit claim to file an appeal. If you miss the deadline, you will likely need to reapply to continue pursuing benefits.

You can request and the SSA can grant a late appeal, but you must show you had good cause for missing the 60-day window. Examples of good cause include personal circumstances that precluded you from filing in time, such as homelessness or a serious illness; physical, mental or language limitations; receiving inaccurate or incomplete information from the SSA about your appeal rights; or a fire or other accident that destroyed records pertinent to your case.

Another option, if you missed the appeal deadline, is to ask Social Security to reopen your claim. You can do this as part of a new disability application for a closely related cause. A benefit of reopening is that, like an appeal, it preserves your original filing date.

Within 12 months of a denial, you can request a reopening for any reason. After that, the SSA will only consider reopening a case under specific, limited circumstances, such as new and material evidence regarding your condition or a showing that the prior denial resulted from fraud or error.

Keep in mind

Be prepared for the appeals process to take a long time. According to SSA data, it takes around eight months on average to get a reconsideration decision, and the average wait for an ALJ hearing is nine months.
With very few exceptions, you cannot file a new disability application if you have a pending claim for the same type of benefit. If you have an SSDI case at any level of Social Security’s review process, for example, you’ll have to drop it to submit a new SSDI claim.
You can file for SSI if you have an SSDI case in review, although the SSA might consolidate the two claims.
SSDI payments begin after a five-month waiting period, which generally starts with the date your disability began. Your first payment will be for the sixth full month after that date. This could be before your claim was approved or even filed, if Social Security determines your disability began that far back, resulting in back pay.

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Andy Markowitz is an AARP senior writer and editor covering Social Security and retirement. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

Phil Pruitt is an AARP writer and editor focusing on Social Security. He is a former editor at Scripps News and Yahoo News and was on the start-up staff at USA Today, where he held numerous editing positions.

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