5. Learn what happens after sending your appeal to the SST
Question & Answer
Can I appeal a decision about my CPP disability beneftis?After you’ve sent the your Notice of Appeal and all of the documents to support your appeal, you can sign and send in a Notice of Readiness form.
You get a Notice of Readiness from the Social Security Tribunal after you send them your Notice of Appeal.
The form tells the Tribunal that you’re ready for them to hold a hearing about your appeal.
If your appeal has a “reasonable chance of success”
The Tribunal first decides if your appeal has “no reasonable chance of success”. To make this decision, the Tribunal looks at what you wrote in your Notice of Appeal and any documents that you sent to support your appeal.
If the Tribunal decides that your appeal has “no reasonable chance of success”, they stop the appeal process and you won’t have a hearing. This is called a “summary dismissal” your appeal.
If this happens, you can appeal to the Tribunal’s Appeal Division.
You’ll need to get legal help to do this. A community legal clinic may be able to help you or refer you to someone who can.
If the Tribunal decides that your appeal has a reasonable chance of success, the appeal process continues to a hearing.
To have a hearing, you and the must each send a Notice of Readiness to the Tribunal. If you both do this, the Tribunal decides whether or not to have a hearing.
If the Tribunal does not get a Notice of Readiness from both of you, the Tribunal will wait until one year has passed since you sent in your Notice of Appeal. At that time, they will decide at what type of hearing to have.
There are different types of hearings. Hearings can be:
- in writing
- in person
- by telephone, or
- by videoconference
Appeal further
If you don’t agree with what the Tribunal decides about your appeal, you may be able to appeal further. This applies whether or not you had a hearing.
This time you would ask to appeal to the Tribunal’s Appeal Division. This is called “seeking leave to appeal”. The Tribunal would decide whether to allow the appeal to go ahead.
If you’re granted leave, you would get to appeal to the Appeal Division. The Appeal Division will then usually send it back for a new hearing at the general division, even though they do have the power to allow an appeal at their level.
You’ll need legal help to do this. A community legal clinic may be able to help you or refer you to someone who can.
