I’ve heard a lot about the “Social Security backlog.” What is that and how might it affect my case?
The backlog applies to cases waiting to be adjudicated due to underfunding by Congress and normal staff attrition. During the last decade, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has lost 10 percent of its administrative law judges, while the number of disability cases has more than doubled. This has resulted in a record-setting backlog of 765,000 hearing requests nationwide. As a result, the processing time for disability hearings has increased by 200 days during the last seven years. In some parts of the country, the waiting time for Supplemental Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) hearings is more than 800 days. Processing times for hearings for North Carolina cases range from 402 days to 557 days (13 to 18 months) from the date the hearing is requested (not from the date the application itself was filed). Backlogs are also being reported nationwide at the initial application and reconsideration stages of the process, due to state furloughs of Disability Determination Services (DD
