Examples of Delays with SSI Non-disability Appeals
and Waiver Requests Needed
At a recent meeting at the Social Security Administration, we tried to persuade high level SSA staff of the urgent need to address the agency's pervasive failure to process SSI "non-disability" appeals and waiver requests, a significant problem that is only getting worse. The surprising response we received from high level SSA officials was that this was highly improbable since all recon requests are entered into the system within 48 hours of receipt. As far as they are concerned, everything is working as it should unless we provide them with a substantial number of cases where the process has broken down.
What would be most valuable for us to send to SSA at this point is the following brief but identifying information about your current SSI cases where an SSA local district office has failed to process a timely request for reconsideration or waiver or has done so only in response to an inquiry from an advocate:
- client's full name and SSN,
- the SSA district office, and
- the date their request for reconsideration or waiver was filed and the manner in which it was filed (fax, certified mail, hand delivery).
If there is additional information regarding harmful consequences to your client, please include that as well.
This is a time sensitive request; please send your case examples to Kate Lang at klang@nsclc.org by Friday, December 13. Please contact Kate Lang at (202) 683-1997 or the above email address with any questions. We greatly appreciate your cooperation in this effort on behalf of our clients.