Why Does It Take So Long To Get A Call Back From The Social Security Office?

How to prove you are disabled
and win disability benefits

Social Security processes over two million disability claims each year and disability is not the only Social Security benefit handled by the Social Security Administration. Each year there are millions of retirement claims, widow and widowers claims, and other dependent claims as well.

Additionally, Social Security has to process all applications for Social Security cards, Medicare entitlement, and replacement Medicare and Social Security cards. If your take all this in to consideration, most Social Security claims representatives are taking appointments all day long and spending what little free time there is in between these various tasks to process claims that have already been taken. After all, if claims are not processed timely, people who are entitled to payments are not receiving their money.

Frankly, there are times when a call has to wait because there are more pressing things in front of the claims representative or service representative. Even so, Social Security encourages their employees to return calls within twenty-four hours; however, there are times when a call back may not be possible within that time frame.

If you have not heard anything from Social Security, it is likely that your disability claim is still being processed. If a disability decision is made, you will receive your decisional notice by mail.

If you call for a status on your disability claim, ask the service representative who answers the phone to check for you rather than asking for the extension of the claims representative who took your claim. The chances are that your call will just get put on the claims representative’s voice mail and you will have to wait for a call back on an issue that, quite likely, could have been answered by the service representative. Messages for claims representative should be limited, if possible, to information needed for your disability claim processing.

Just remember that Social Security employees are extremely busy with increased benefit applications and many offices are working at capacity. For this reason, it may take some time to get a call back from Social Security.