How long will I wait for a Social Security disability hearing?​

Social Security is required to send you written notice of a scheduled hearing date at least 75 days in advance. You can waive this notice, which may reduce your wait time, but you will still be bound by SSA rules on submitting any evidence for your claim ahead of your hearing.

Backlog shrinking

One reason it can take so long is that Social Security receives hundreds of thousands of requests for hearings each year, and before cases can be heard, the appeals system’s approximately 1,200 judges have to review the increasingly voluminous paperwork in the case files.

According to a June 2021 report by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO), many judges struggle to keep up with the system’s expectation that they’ll make at least 500 decisions a year. The wait time in a particular office is affected by the volume of cases it gets, though Social Security says it’s trying to even out the workload nationally.

On the plus side, the SSA has considerably reduced both the case backlog and the waiting period in recent years, due in part to additional funding from Congress to pay for improvements such as better information technology but also to a drop in requests for hearings during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports by GAO and Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General.

While the backlog is still sizable — there were nearly 340,000 cases awaiting hearings at the end of the 2022 federal fiscal year — that’s down from 1.1 million five years earlier. The national average wait time dropped by more than half, from 19 months in 2017 to nine months in 2021, before climbing back over the one-year mark in 2022.

Keep in mind

• If you lack the resources to get food, shelter or medicine while awaiting a disability hearing, you may submit a “dire need” letter to Social Security seeking expedited treatment. Evidence such as an eviction notice or copies of medical bills can help you make the case.
• During the pandemic Social Security closed its hearing centers and switched to remote proceedings, with ALJs hearing cases by telephone and online video. Hearing offices reopened in March 2022, but the remote alternatives remain available. The SSA website has details on hearing options.
• Disability claimants win around half the time at the hearing stage. If you lose, the next step is to take your case to a Social Security Appeals Council, which can review the ALJ’s decision.