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The administrative hearing is the second stage in a Social Security or SSI (Supplemental Security Income) appeal. It takes between 12 and 15 months to get a hearing date after the hearing request. Hearings are meant to be informal, fact-finding procedures. The people present at the hearing are the claimant, attorney, judge and the reporter who is there simply to record the hearing and handle the file. Sometimes medical and vocational experts are also in attendance. The job of these experts is to give an opinion on the case, based on the record and testimony. The hearings usually take about an hour. The judges will sometimes ask questions first and then allow the attorney to direct questions to the claimant. Some judges let the attorney ask questions first. In either event, the main information covered is age, educational background, work history and disabilities. The disability can be mental, physical or both. The judge will consider the medical evidence in the file, the testimony at the hearing, the experts’ opinions and any further briefs or letters from the attorney, and then issue a decision. The decision will rarely be given at the hearing itself. It is usually 30-90 days after the hearing before a written decision can be expected. The written decision,
if favorable, is the trigger for the beginning of the payment process.
Unfortunately, it can still be several more weeks until the claimant
receives the money. In SSI claims the claimant is called into the
District Office for an interview to establish current financial
qualification. They may get a check within 30-60 days or longer.
Regular disability cases are paid from a payment office in another
part of the country and have similar delays. |
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