Disability benefit decision appeals time

This chart shows how many days on average our customers waited for a hearing decision from our hearing offices, by fiscal year and month. 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.

This map shows the average processing time of each hearing office so far this fiscal year. In August 2023, the hearing office in Anchorage, AK was incorporated into the Seattle, WA hearing office (Y38) for data reporting purposes. As a result, Alaska is not displayed separately in the above map.

This chart shows the number of hearing decisions pending, by fiscal year and month. 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 262,000 in September 2024, marking a 30-year low.