Social Security’s own dashboard shows the queue for a hearing before an administrative law judge growing faster than the agency can clear it. Pending disability hearings rose from roughly 278,000 in July 2025 to about 362,000 in July 2026, even as the average time to a decision dropped slightly to 275 days. That is still five days past the agency’s stated 270-day target, and it means hundreds of thousands of people who have already been denied twice are waiting the better part of a year for a judge to review their case.
Pending Hearings Climb Past 360,000 Even As Case Times Improve
The Social Security Administration tracks the backlog on its own performance dashboard, updated monthly and current through July 2026. The chart shows pending hearings increasing from about 278,000 cases in July 2025 to about 362,000 in July 2026, a rise of roughly 30% in twelve months. Average processing time actually fell during that stretch, from 285 days to 275 days, meaning the agency is closing individual cases about ten days faster than a year earlier, according to the agency’s performance dashboard. New hearing requests are arriving faster than the office can resolve them, so the total number of people in line keeps growing even as each case moves a little quicker. One of the agency’s stated goals is lowering the average hearings wait to 270 days, a target the July 2026 figure still misses by five days.
Free SSI and disability checkup: SSI and SSDI treat work and income differently, and a review looks at both. Get organized with the free checkup.
The Two Appeals That Come Before A Hearing
A hearing is not the first stop in the disability appeals process. Applicants denied at the initial application stage can request reconsideration, a second review of the same file by a different examiner. Only after that reconsideration is also denied can someone request a hearing before an administrative law judge, and the agency gives applicants 60 days from the reconsideration notice to make that request. The judge assigned to the case reviews the full medical record, may question the applicant directly, and can call in medical or vocational experts before issuing a written decision. It is this hearing stage, the step before the Appeals Council or federal court, where the 362,000-case backlog and the 275-day average sit. The hearing office must give applicants at least 75 days’ notice of the hearing date once one is scheduled, though applicants can waive that notice to be scheduled sooner. Representation is optional at any stage, and Social Security notes that some organizations offer free legal help or take a fee only if the applicant is later awarded benefits.
Earlier Stages Have Gotten Faster; Hearings Have Not
Earlier steps in the disability process have measurably sped up over the same period. SSA’s dashboard shows the average time to decide an initial disability claim falling from 220 days in July 2025 to 186 days in July 2026, and reconsideration decisions dropping from 240 days to 214 days across the same twelve months. Pending caseloads at those two earlier stages also shrank, from more than 935,000 initial claims a year ago to about 885,000, and from over 376,000 reconsiderations to about 310,000. The hearings stage is the outlier: it is the only one of the three where the number of pending cases grew rather than shrank, even though its own average processing time also improved slightly. That divergence suggests faster front-end decisions are, if anything, feeding more denials into a hearings office that has not scaled to match.
Virtual Hearings Are Now the Default, Not the Exception
Part of how the agency has kept average wait times from climbing further is a shift in how hearings are actually held. Social Security’s data shows about 91% of hearings conducted so far in fiscal year 2026 took place virtually, by phone or online video, up from 88% a year earlier and above the 85% share recorded for all of fiscal year 2025. Virtual hearings let a judge’s office schedule cases without waiting on courtroom space or travel logistics, which the agency credits with helping absorb part of the surge in requests. For applicants, that means the hearing many have waited months or years for is now more likely to happen over a video call or phone line than inside a courtroom.
What the Delay Costs While the Clock Runs
For most people in the queue, the hearing is not an abstraction, it is often the only remaining path to a benefit check after two denials. Someone whose initial claim and reconsideration were both denied has typically already gone a year or more without disability income before a hearing request is even filed, and the current 275-day average adds roughly nine more months on top of that. Medical bills, rent, and daily costs do not pause during the wait, and many applicants have no income at all unless a spouse works or they qualify for a separate program such as Supplemental Security Income. Social Security’s own figures, current through July 2026 and last refreshed on August 11, are the clearest public record of how long that stretch has become, and they show it lengthening even as individual cases move a bit faster than they did a year earlier.
Sorting SSI From SSDI During A Long Hearing Wait
The backlog described above sits inside the disability insurance track, but many of the same applicants also have Supplemental Security Income in the picture, either as their only source of support while a hearing is pending or alongside a smaller disability award once one arrives. SSI and SSDI use different income and resource tests, and a hearing decision can shift which program someone qualifies for or how much comes from each. Sorting that out before a decision arrives, rather than after, keeps a long wait from turning into a paperwork problem layered on top of a financial one.
The SSI & Disability Action Kit is a 10-page kit built around the 2026 SSI income and resource limits, the rules for working without losing benefits, and an income and resource organizer for tracking both programs side by side.
See the 2026 SSI income and resource limits and the income and resource organizer in The SSI & Disability Action Kit.
This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by an editor.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
