Wednesday, July 30, 2008

WAITING - Statistics and Rankings for an ALJ Hearing in Omaha



Information effective July 1, 2008 identified the Omaha office of Hearings and Appeals as one in a group of 147 offices across the country. These offices are assigned to hear claims for disability, and the Omaha office is understaffed as the rankings reveal. The hearing is the "3rd step" in a claim for disability, indicating that two previous denials have been issued. That is, the "processing time" in the report only reflects the time the file was at the Omaha office from beginning to end, that is, from start to finish it is longer if the claim gets this far.

The magic numbers:
601 days for processing time
112 - rank of 147 other offices.

Indianapolis ranked last and the processing time is 896 days.

I am a member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR) and their recent newsletter published this information that was obtained from the Social Security Administration.