Social Security Administrations Delays

The Social Security Administration has long recognized that when they deny benefits, there is a significant delay between the time a person applies for benefits and the date of their hearing.   In some regions the time delay can be as long as two to three years. The Spokane office has a current average delay of 465 days between the application for benefits and a hearing date.   They rank 82nd in the nation.  There are certainly other offices with much longer delay periods.  The Social Security Administration has tried several different methods in order to reduce the waiting period.

Recently, the Social Security office in charge of conducting hearings, called the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), as tried reassigning some files from particularly overwhelm the offices to other offices that were less encumbered. The Spokane office of ODAR recently assigned some of its files to hearing offices located in Louisiana and Oklahoma. In total, over 700 files were reassigned from Eastern Washington. Over 100 cases that were reassigned were cases handled by our offices. These cases could be reassigned because just a few years ago the hearing office started conducting hearings by video teleconference. The claimant and any representatives they may have appeared at a local hearing office location and the judge assigned the case conducts a hearing by video teleconference.

The reassignment of these cases to outlying offices has meant that some of their hearings have been scheduled in addition to a current schedule of hearings. Adding many advanced cases to a current hearing schedule has put a greater load on all the staff but we had dug in and worked extra hard to make sure all cases were put into the current schedule and were prepared for hearing to the same extent as we have all the rest of the cases.

The staff and attorneys at Calbom & Schwab have been required to work extra hard to prepare these reassigned cases together with cases that were already scheduled for hearings. We have worked closely with the offices in Louisiana and Oklahoma to learn their preferred method of arranging files in preparing files for hearings. It has been a learning experience for all. Some of the methods used by the new hearing offices assigned have actually streamlined the method used by us regarding storing and using documents. Because we were already "paperless" in many aspects of our file management, we were able to more easily adjust to the heightened demand.

Calbom & Schwab PSC certainly appreciates the efforts of ODAR to do anything they can to reduce the waiting period.

Calbom & Schwab PSC has also taken the lead in creating a network of local attorneys and representatives handling Social Security disability claims, particularly, to discuss challenges presented by the method and manner in which some local Social Security judges weighed evidence or evaluate disability claims. It has been very enlightening to discuss with other local attorneys the challenges presented by some of the judges. We continue to work very hard to try to make sure that all Social Security claimants are evaluated in a fair and equitable manner.

We will continue to work with other attorneys in the area, as we search out better methods to obtain justice for all our clients. It remains our first and foremost concern to ensure that our clients are treated fairly and that all relevant evidence is considered by the administrative law judge when they review our clients' cases.