How to Apply for Social Security Disability in Ohio, Find a Lawyer, Denial Rates, How Long It Takes, and Addresses.

To apply for Social Security Disability or SSI the most come way is to call 1-800-772-1213 and make an appointment at your local office.  If you are applying for SSDI you also have other options.  You can apply on-line at SSA website.   You can also contact an attorney who can help you apply.  For general information on applying see my web page on applying for Social Security Disability.

The biggest question on your mind might be what are my chances of winning.  Every case is different and your chances depend on many factors including your age, education, past work and severity of your medical conditions.  I am providing the statistics on denial rates to give you an overall picture of the average denial rate at application and reconsideration in OH for the year 2006.  The denial rate at application is 73.4%.  The denial rate at reconsideration is 89.1 %.  As you can see the denial rates are less than encouraging for anyone applying for disability benefits.  In the next section below I have also listed the processing time for each ODAR at the bottom of each address.  The processing time at application and reconsideration are much shorter but as you can see with the high number of cases that are denied at these first two stages, and the long time it takes to get a decision at hearing, the whole process can be frustrating and long.  Try to stay patient and keep plugging away.

In this section you will find the addresses of the hearing offices that handle SSDI and SSI cases for Ohio.  Below each address is the location of the local SSA offices that send their cases to that ODAR.  You will also find the average length of time in days it takes for a decision to be made at the hearing stage.  You will find an update and some new information about the wait times at the bottom of this page.

Update:  The wait times from the time you request a hearing until you get a decision as of June 27, 2008 are 668 days for Cincinnati, 711 days for Fort Wayne, 734 for Cleveland, 803 for Dayton and 814 for Columbus.  Social Security’s first National Hearing Center, located in Falls Church, Virginia, opened in December 2007 has been working to reduce processing time in Cleveland, Ohio.  The NHC is a hearing office set up to help reduce the wait time for severely backlogged ODAR offices.  They are conducting hearings by video to try and reduce the backlog at the Cleveland ODAR office.  Additionally, and more specific to this state, there is plans to open a new hearing office in Toledo, OH. This should help Social Security schedule more hearings and thus reduce the backlog of Social Security disability hearings in Ohio.

Here is an update posted on December 18, 2010 for those of you would Social Security disability cases in Ohio. Senators Daniel Akaka and Sen. George Voinovich had a committee hearing in Akron, Ohio. The purpose of the hearing was to find ways to improve the Social Security disability backlogs in Ohio. Sen. Voinovich was concerned by the number of complaints he receives regarding how long it takes to get a decision on a Social Security disability case in OH. It was noted in the meeting that in 2010 there was a 21% increase in the number of applications in the state of OH. There was also concern that the laser the results of state furloughing employees at the Ohio disability determination services. Also at the hearing was the Social Security Administration Commissioner Astrue and Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll. The Commissioner outlined his plan to reduce the backlog of all Social Security disability claims by the year 2013. It was noted at the hearing that the recession is playing a big role in the number of new claims being received by Social Security. The Commissioner pointed out that although the delay is 400 and 600 days presently in Ohio four years ago it was 600 to 800 days. As a result of the large delays in Ohio new hearing offices were opened in Akron, OH and Toledo, OH. It is the belief that these new hearing offices will help reduce Ohio backlog of claims and thus reduce the amount of time it takes for a claimant to get a decision for their Social Security disability claim. Commissioner Astrue placed much of the delays on the furloughing of employees whose salaries are paid by the federal government. The main issue here appear to be who should be paying these employees the state or federal government. Another problem addressed at this hearing was that some administrative law judges in Ohio were not meeting their performance goals. It was pointed out by Judge Frye who is the president of the Association of administrative law judges that the organization had no problems with goals but that of quotas were set the string of law judges the concern would be the correct decisions would not be made in some cases. Judge Frye also point out that the processing of hearing decisions are not just under the control of individual administrative law judges but also the other employees that work at the office of disability adjudication and review (hearing offices). Will be interesting to see what impact the new hearing offices and possible resolution of the furlough issue will have on the extremely long delays experienced by Social Security disability claimants in Ohio.