If you have noticed that it seems to be taking longer to get disability decisions from the Social Security Administration ("SSA"), you are not alone. Depending on where you live, initial applications are still taking about 4 to 9 months to process. The national average waiting time for applications in January of 2024 was 231 day, or about 7.45 months. The fact that I represent claimants primarily in Southern California, one of the more populated areas of the country, means most of my clients are waiting for close to 9 months (if not longer) to get their initial determinations. This isn't unusual. I have practiced Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income law for 20 years come June of 2024 and this is par for the course.
Where I am seeing significant delays, however, is at the reconsideration level, which is the second stage of the process. Most people receive an initial application denial and have to go through the reconsideration process. In fact, SSA granted 39 percent of initial applications for 2023, which means 61 percent of claimants had to request reconsideration if they wanted to continue to try to obtain disability benefits. This is the stage that I am noticing unusual delays....in Southern California at least. Historically, reconsideration decisions were also issued within 4 to 9 months of SSA receiving a request for reconsideration. However, we have been seeing cases sit for 10 to 11 months pretty regularly at the reconsideration stage in Southern California over the last year or so.
SSA actually contracts with Disability Determination Services ("DDS), a branch of the Department of Social Services to provide the medical development of SSDI/SSI cases at both the initial application and reconsideration levels. This is because SSA does not have the staff to provide the medical development at the lower levels of the disability process.
Several California DDS offices have told me that they were ordered by SSA to pull reconsideration staff to work on initial applications due to complaints from government officials that it was taking too long for people to get initial determinations from SSA. Pulling staff has created a bottleneck at the reconsideration level. It hasn't "fixed" the process at all. It just pushed the delays to another stage. It isn't DDS's fault either. They haven't been given an adequate budget or enough staff to work up the volume of cases they are assigned to process from SSA.
One DDS office told me last week that they just started assigning analysts for appeals filed on June 1, 2023. Another office told me it is taking them 6 to 8 months to even assign an analyst to a case. Once an analyst is assigned to assess a case, it is taking 3 to 4 months to get a decision. Thus, Southern California claimants are waiting 9 to 12 months to get decisions at the reconsideration stage in many cases.
What is so frustrating is that reconsideration almost always results in a denial, as SSA only grants 15 percent (yes, 15 percent) of claims at the reconsideration stage, which is why I call reconsideration "the trash can." For years, practitioners have argued that SSA should eliminate the stage and allow us to go directly to a hearing if a claimant is initially denied. For a while, SSA looked into eliminating the reconsideration stage and allowed some prototype cases to go straight to the hearing level if an initial application was denied. However, the Commissioner ultimately decided that reconsideration was a necessary stage of the process and eliminated the prototype case test program.
Once denied at the reconsideration stage, a claimant must request a hearing at the Office of Hearings Operations ("OHO"). In California, there is data showing that claimants are getting hearings scheduled within 325 days (San Bernardino) up to 689 days (Santa Barbara). Santa Barbara is definitely taking close to 2 years to schedule a hearing, but most of my clients seem to be getting their hearings scheduled at other hearing offices within 10 to 12 months. This is because I do not dispute the format of the hearing. Unless there is a reason that the Judge needs to physically see my client, I am happy to do phone or video hearings if it means my client's claim will be heard faster. If you demand an in-person hearing, clearly the waiting periods will be longer because more Judges are conducting hearings virtually, than in-person, post-Covid. I do not expect that fact to change. The Judges at OHO grant about 45 percent of the claimants based on statistics for 2023.
If you are denied at the hearing level, then you must file an appeal with the Appeals Council ("AC"). The AC only overturns 1 percent of the Judge's denials and it is currently taking the AC 15 to 18 months to make a decision. If denied by the AC, you have completed SSA's administrative processes and your only option is to file a complaint in a Federal District Court assigned to your jurisdiction.
Got a question about SSDI or SSI that you need us to answer? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with helpful information on our website that will allow you to successfully navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to email me your questions at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call me at (800) 459-3017 x 101.
