If you are not waiting for a Social Security disability hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) or you have not tried to visit a Social Security office within the last four months you are probably unaware that Social Security office have been closed since mid March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has created many obstacles for people seeking benefits. This includes disability applicants who have a scheduled hearing, but can’t attend that hearing.
Because Social Security offices, including hearings offices, remain closed the agency began offering telephone hearings where the judge, the claimant, the claimant’s representative and any witnesses appear by phone in a conference call. It is the only way to have a hearing now, and likely to continue that way for at least the next few months. A claimant is not required to accept the phone hearing, but if they don’t the hearing will be postponed and reschedule for a time when Social Security resumes in-person hearings.
There are two significant issues with these postponements. First of all no one can speculate as to when Social Security will resume in-person hearings. One ALJ recently mentioned to one of our attorneys that phone hearings could continue through at least October 2020. The other issue is when Social Security does decide to resume in-person hearings it does not mean a claimant who rejected a phone hearing, because they wanted an in-person hearing, will have that hearing scheduled immediately.
When the smoke all clears and in-person hearings continue there will be a lot of postponed hearings that need to be rescheduled and it could take several months or even longer before those hearings are scheduled.
That being said, the choice of whether to accept a phone hearing is up to the claimant. There are some drawbacks to a phone hearing, but the drawback to rejecting a phone hearing are also concerning. A claimant could be waiting an additional six months or longer to before a hearing is rescheduled and for people who are facing significant financial stress this is just not an option.
