The best case scenario for a disability hearing is to have a fairly brief meeting with an administrative law judge before he or she says they’ve read the file, they’re convinced the claimant is disabled, and they’ll be paying out the case.
It’s a successful end to what’s often a grueling, years long process. Kind of. This being the federal government, there’s still more waiting ahead.
Social Security regulations require that all disability decisions be put into writing, and explain the rationale for the judge’s decision, even if it’s a very strong case. Usually, even these brief decisions are about 10 pages long.
And the writing time for those decisions is what holds things up. Different disability offices have different backlogs. It simply takes longer for some of them to get decisions out. Similarly, every judge works at a different pace. While some judges review decisions and approve them quickly, others can take weeks, or months. In some instances, judges get sick or take time off, which further delay the process.
On the other hand, sometimes when judges see a case come before them that should have been approved long before it came to them, they’ll fast track the decision to get it written and reviewed as quickly as possible.
So, how long does it take to get one of those favorable decisions in a case the judge says they’ll approve? Ultimately, it varies a lot. Sometimes, these decisions come out in a couple weeks. Other times, it can take 4-5 months, or even longer.
And even after that, there’s even more waiting until Social Security actually pays out the benefits.
