Change In Hearing Times For Social Security Disability

In 1999, there was a total of 1,265, 037 disability claim applications filed with the Social Security Administration . As of 2014, there was 2,521,459 filed. That is a staggering increase in people seeking Social Security disability benefits, especially if you take into consideration there are only 1,445 Social Security judges within the Social Security Administration. Now, not all of these claims that were filed in 2014 had to go to the hearing level. However, these numbers tell us what to expect for hearing dates. What used to take 12 months, now is likely to take at least 14. And, if you take into consideration the time to originally file for disability benefits and to file again after the first initial denial, the total time is likely to be somewhere close to 2 years. So, here is what I have been telling my clients: The day we file for a hearing before a Social Security judge, expect to wait at least 14 months. According to an October, 2014, article in The Washington Post, the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, which is the office of Social Security judges who hear appeals for disability benefits, was at that time 990,399 cases behind schedule. As of December, 2015, this number has likely increased even further.