I know people that got approved for disability 3 months after applying. Will I get disability benefits that quickly?
I hear this from my clients all the time. Someone they know got approved for disability benefits just a few months after they applied. They want to know, why is their case taking so long? The answer is that the amount of time it takes is dependent on the Social Security Agency and your local state DDS (disability determination services) office. State agencies have become more delayed in processing claims since the pandemic. This is due to a combination
How long does it take to get disability benefits on average?
According to US Congressman Drew Ferguson (R), more than 1 million claimants are currently waiting for disability benefits at the initial level (when you first file for benefits). Currently, it is taking the SSA about 220 days (or about 7 months) for them to process decisions at the initial level. At the reconsideration level (after you have been turned down once) it is taking SSA 183 days per month on average to make a determination. After requesting a hearing, depending on the hearing office, the time to a hearing can vary. At the Charleston, SC Office of Hearings (OHO), it is taking about 13.5 months on average to get a hearing. But at the Raleigh, NC hearing office, it is taking about 10 months for a hearing. If you add it all up, it takes more than 2 years to get a hearing from the day that you start your case.
That’s way too long for me! Is there anyway that I can speed up the process?
I agree, the disability process is very slow. There are a few ways that you can get your case heard faster. But you have to meet specific requirements for SSA to speed up your case. If they determine your case is critical, then your case will move faster. Here are some of the categories below that SSA designates as critical.
Wounded Warrior Expedited Hearing.
If you are or were in the military, you can get faster processing of your case. You must have had a disability and/or impairment which happened while you were on active military duty on or after October 1, 2001. You must have also:
(1) Sustained an illness, injury, or wound and (2) Alleged a physical or mental impairment, regardless of how the impairment occurred, or where it occurred (i.e., United States or on foreign soil).
If you meet this criteria, I would give SSA a call at 1-800-772-1213 or call your local SSA office to get them to designate your case as critical.
VA Disability 100% rating P&T claim.
You can also if you’re a disabled veteran and you have been rated 100% P&T (permanently and totally disabled) by the VA. There are a couple of things that you can do to get your case sped up. You must either:
(1) Identify yourself as a “veteran rated 100% P&T” when you apply for benefits.
If you apply in person or over the phone, tell the Social Security representative
that you are a veteran rated 100% P&T. If you apply online, enter “Veteran 100%
P&T” in the “Remarks” section of your application.
(2) Provide Social Security with your Veterans Affairs notification letter, which
verifies your rating.
Dire Need Case
Most of the cases where I have seen clients get their cases sped up are in this category. Unfortunately, these are situations where you would be in a terrible financial situation. Any of these situations can create a dire need for SSA purposes but I have bolded the third category. Being unable to pay for electricity or gas bills is an issue when the disability process takes so long and you are no longer receiving a pay check. If any of these categories applied to my clients, I would call SSA and let them know. I would also mail and fax them a letter explaining what the situation is as well as providing some documentation. This might be a disconnection notice, notice of foreclosure, or any other notice that you have received.
(1) The claimant is without food and is unable to obtain it or
(2) The claimant lacks medicine or medical care and is unable to obtain it, or
access to necessary medical care is restricted because of a lack of resources.
(3) The claimant lacks shelter (e.g., without utilities such that their home is
uninhabitable, homelessness, expiration of a shelter stay, or imminent
eviction or foreclosure with no means to remedy the situation or obtain
shelter).
Terminal Illness Case (TERI)
Your case could be designated as critical if your illness is alleged or identified as terminal (i.e., untreatable, irreversible, and expected to end in death). Usually, you need a doctor to state in the medical records or a statement that they
think you are likely to pass away due to severity of the illness. In this situation, I would probably call SSA for a terminal diagnosis from a doctor.
Compassionate Allowance Process
This program is designed to identify diseases and other medical conditions that, by definition, meet or equal one or more listings in the Listings of Impairments (20 CFR Appendix 1 to Subpart P of Part 404—Listing of Impairments). This is usually going to be a serious illness (for example when someone gets put on the kidney transplant list, they are legally blind in both eyes, or their hearing is so bad that it meets a listing. Some fractures that are bad enough can also meet a listing). I don’t see my clients meeting a listing very often but if they do, it makes a disability case much easier to win.
Potentially Violent:
This would mostly likely come up if you had a recent suicide attempt or violent incident. The SSA guidelines state may designate the case as critical if there is an indication that the claimant is suicidal, homicidal, or potentially violent.” I have not seen this situation come up in my years of practice where the case was designated critical.
If you are trying to figure out if you can speed up your case, give us a call at 843-790-7550 . We would be glad to help you figure out what your options are.
What can I do if I don’t meet any of these categories?
One option you have is that you can write to your Congressional representative and ask them to help you with your Social Security disability claim. They can make a request to SSA to get a status update on your case. It’s important to know that this will have no impact on whether you win or lose your case. According to North Carolina former disability examiner, Tim Moore, the request will usually get filed away by the Social Security Agency when a disability case is at the hearing. His experience was that cases would be scheduled faster at the hearing level (when your case is scheduled in front of a judge. Over my years of practice, I haven’t seen it make much of a difference in a disability case.
If you do write to your Congressional representative, my recommendation is that you should also ask them to speed up the disability process. One way this might happen is if Congress tells SSA to eliminate the reconsideration (second level) of the process. Because Social Security rarely change the decision after a denial at the initial level, I think it would save a lot of time and reduce the workload for the state agencies. Increasing funding for SSA would also speed up hearings by increasing staff. Finally, SSA could speed up the decision and help claimants by no longer relying on work data that is more than 30 years out of date. On a personal level, it has been very frustrating to see vocational experts having to rely on old descriptions of jobs that no longer apply to today’s economy where more and more jobs require you to use a computer and technology.
Sources: https://ferguson.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4534
https://www.ssa.gov/open/data/disability_reconsideration_average_processing_time.html
https://www.ssa.gov/appeals/DataSets/01_NetStat_Report.html
https://www.ssdrc.com/disabilityquestions4-66.html
https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/hallex/I-02/I-2-1-40.html
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