Dire Need Status to Expedite Social Security Disability Claims
Filing for Social Security Disability can be a long and frustrating process that can take years to complete. The current average wait time for a hearing in the Mobile hearing office is fifteen to eighteen months after filing your request for a hearing. That does not mean fifteen to eighteen months after filing your initial application. It usually takes three to six months for an initial application to be decided, and once denied, at that time you will file your request for a hearing.
However, under certain limited circumstances, the hearing office can speed up your disability hearing. Your case can qualify as “critical” and receive special processing if you have a terminal illness confirmed by a treating physician (untreatable, irreversible, and expected to end in death), if you are a Veteran who has received a 100 percent permanent and total disability compensation rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs, or if you are a current or former member of a military service who sustained an illness, injury, wound that is related to your disabling impairment while on active duty status on or after October 1, 2001. You can be placed at dire need status if you lack shelter, e.g., if you receive a foreclosure or eviction notice while your claim is pending.
If you fall under any of these categories, immediately notify the Social Security Disability hearing office or your attorney. This could save you valuable time and keep you from having to wait over a year for a disability hearing.
For more information on Social Security Disability Benefits and Supplemental Security Income, contact an experienced Social Security disability attorney at Gardberg & Kemmerly, P.C. Gardberg & Kemmerly, P.C. represents Social Security disability claimants in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana at all levels of the disability process from initial application to appeals to Federal Court. Gardberg & Kemmerly, P.C. has been helping Social Security claimants with their disability claims for over 30 years.