The staff at my office spend a significant amount of time communicating with Social Security employees to ensure that our client’s cases are being processed as quickly and
expeditiously as possible. This is important to ensure that cases don’t “fall through the cracks” and that our clients do not spend unnecessary time waiting on a decision because a Social Security employee has neglected a responsibility. We were pleased to learn that Social Security has introduced a tool that should make our role much more efficient – it has made lists of cases pending at the initial and reconsideration levels available online.
After an initial claim for Social Security disability is filed, it needs to be transferred to a state’s Disability Determination Bureau (a/k/a Disability Determination Services in some states) for evaluation. Cases at the initial and reconsideration levels are decided by state agencies contracted by the federal government for disability evaluation processing. Sometimes, there are delays between the receipt of a new disability claim brought to the Social Security Administration and the transfer of it to the state’s Disability Determination Bureau so that it can be evaluated. Our office routinely follows up to make sure that this transfer happens in a timely manner. The case list should aid in that process.
While our office often files new claims for clients, we also take on cases that clients had originally filed themselves, usually after they are denied at the initial level. In these cases, we send representative paperwork to Social Security, then need to confirm that it has been received and processed so that we can move ahead with our client representation. This new case list should streamline this process and enable us to see when our representative paperwork has been processed without taking the time to call Social Security, which often requires a lot of time on hold.
Generally, this case list should make fewer phone calls to Social Security employees necessary. This should also benefit the Social Security Administration, which is frequently so busy that it cannot answer the volume of calls it receives. If the Administration has fewer calls to answer from representatives like us, it will free up time for them to address other responsibilities, which could also have a beneficial effect on case processing time.
Our firm is a part of the National Organization of Social Security Representatives.
This group’s advocacy helped lead to this development, and we continue to participate in this organization as it continues to support efforts like The Stop The Wait Act, which would end the five-month waiting period which requires claimants to wait five full months after their disability onset date before benefits become effective.
In conclusion, making these case lists available online is a small change, and other changes could have much more dramatic effects, like requiring high earners to pay their fair share of Social Security. Nonetheless, our Social Security disability lawyer team appreciates this new mechanism to help us pursue benefits for our clients.
