It only happens in a small percentage of hearings, but my favorites are of course the ones where the judge says my client is going to be awarded disability benefits.
It’s the best case scenario in a long and difficult process, and I wish it meant that my clients could see a direct deposit of backpay that day. Unfortunately, even if a judge says you’ve been approved for benefits, it can still mean months of waiting before you see a single cent.
By statue, all disability decisions have to be put into writing. When an administrative law judge has decided to award a case, they send their notes over to a staff attorney to write the decision. And they always have a backlog of these cases. That means it may be a couple weeks or a couple of months before they can actually write the decision.
It still needs to be reviewed by the judge then. Some judges get to these decisions quickly. Others are slower to do it. In some cases, a judge may go on leave for various reasons, which only extends the wait. And hopefully, no issues pop up like new substantial earnings.
But eventually, the decision goes out in the mail. It’s then a matter of figuring out backpay. This portion of Social Security is also chronically understaffed and underfunded. If a claim is only for Social Security Disability Insurance, it’s a more simple matter of determining backpay based on IRS wages and confirming a claimant hasn’t work. Supplemental Security Income cases require PERC interviews with claimants to determine exactly how much they’re entitled to each month, and SSA employees are so overwhelmed that it can take weeks just to schedule one of these interviews.
So, the unfortunate result here is a system that’s inconsistent at best, and downright punitive at worst. The good news is that you will almost certainly be approved and paid if a judge says so at your hearing. The bad news is that it could still be a very long time before you see any money.
