The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) provided updated information on wait times for Social Security disability hearings as of the end of January 2015. The news is not pretty.
Despite Social Security’s move to inform all claimants who are waiting for a disability hearing that Social Security holds the right to decide whether claimants will receive a live hearing before a judge or a video hearing where the judge is in another location (an attempt to cure the hearing backlog), unless the claimant objects, hearing wait times appear to only be getting longer.
Of Course Social Security will never estimate how long an applicant may have to wait for a hearing, or give incorrect timelines that Social Security never lives up to, so it is up to representatives to inform clients of what the actual wait times are, which can be met with a lot of frustration.
According to the number compiled by NOSSCR, the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) with the fastest average processing time for hearings is Alexandria, Louisiana, which has an average processing time of 296 days. Of the 163 different ODAR hearing’s offices Fort Meyers, Florida takes the longest to process hearings coming in at an average of 777 days.
As hard as it may be to believe, the wait times are actually getting longer according to the NOSSCR even after Social Security made the change in an attempt to cut down hearing wait times.
Obviously something is amiss and not working correctly in how Social Security is implementing its new system in an effort to speed up the hearing process. One thing is for sure, this news is not going to make Social Security claimants any less frustrated.
To learn more about Social Security’s average wait times for hearings click here.
