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Disability benefit decision appeals time

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Disability claimants who disagree with the determination made by Social Security and the State Disability Determination Services, may request a hearing with an administrative law judge. Social Security typically receives between 20,000 and 40,000 hearing requests monthly.  Historically, wait times for a hearing decision could be over a year. We are working to reduce the time it takes for claimants to receive a hearing decision. 

The SecurityStat process

  • Set a strategic goal.

    Conduct disability determination appeal hearings and issue decisions within an end of year monthly (September) average processing time of 270 days in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

  • Drive leading actions.

    • Promote virtual hearings, so we can keep pace with demand and make decisions quickly.
    • Adopt software that speeds up medical reviews.
    • Develop technology to speed up decision writing.

  • Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) over time.

    • Hearing decision average wait time
    • Hearings pending

Hearing decision average wait time

7-year trend

This chart shows how many days on average our customers waited for a hearing decision from our hearing offices over the last 7 fiscal years. Over the past several fiscal years, Congress appropriated dedicated funding to improve the customer experience for individuals who file a hearing request. In fiscal year 2023, we experienced a temporary increase in the average processing time as we prioritized individuals waiting the longest and those who chose to wait for an in-person hearing rather than accepting a video or telephone hearing when our hearing offices were closed to the public during the pandemic.

October 2023 to Present

This chart shows the average hearing processing times at our hearing offices for each month this fiscal year. 

Current average hearing office time to decision

This map shows the average processing time of each hearing office as of the previous month.

Hearings pending

By fiscal year and monthly

This chart shows the number of hearing decisions pending by year for fiscal years 2017 through 2023, followed by the months of fiscal year 2024. We experienced a backlog of cases in fiscal year 2017 and gradually reduced our pending cases with the support of dedicated funding from Congress. Our hearings pending dropped below 300,000 in March 2024, marking a 30-year low.

Last updated on June 5, 2024.