How Long Do Social Security Disability Appeals Take?

There is simply no way to know exactly how long a disability appeal with the Social Security administration will take. This is due to several facts.

First, disability cases do not have deadlines (despite the fact that the Social Security office will often says that it will take 90-120 days for processing an initial decision).

Second, all cases are different as far as a claimant's impairments and medical evidence is concerned. Some conditions are easy to determine as disabled; others take longer.

And, third, sometimes a case is assigned to a DDS claims examiner who has three hundred cases to work on, and sometimes to an examiner who has ninety cases. In other words, the luck of the draw may apply.

On average, though, reconsiderations (the first level of appeal after the initial claim denial) are completed in four months or less, and hearings before judges are granted about nine to twelve months after a hearing is requested.

Unfortunately, however, there are many examples of reconsiderations taking considerably longer than six months, and hearings taking a year or more to be scheduled.

Learn more about denials and appeals.