Claimants Die Awaiting Hearings

As Social Security’s waits for hearing reach all time highs each month, The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives requested information about these statistics from Social security. Between September 15,2015 and September 1, 2016, 7987 such claimants died. The average person who died was 50 years old, and had waited 403 days for a hearing. As of March 2016 there were 1090 claimants who had their cases flagged as terminally ill; they waited an average of 189 days. A report from the Office of the Inspector General found that 63 of these claimants died awaiting hearings. A hearing request is a final administrative leel of appeal, and can take place as much as a year after the initial application.