If your disability claim is currently pending at the initial claim (disability application) or reconsideration appeal levels, your case will be at DDS. The number for the state disability agency, known in most states as Disability Determination Services (DDS), can be obtained by contacting your local Social Security office.

When you call the number for DDS, you will be asked your social security number and then connected to the disability examiner who is handling your case. If the examiner is available, they will be able to quickly give you a status update. However, one of the advantages of calling for your status is that the examiner may use this opportunity to pull your file and gather additional information from you if it is needed. Your case may even be finished that day if it turns out the examiner was waiting for the opportunity to obtain last-needed information from you before deciding the claim.

If your disability claim is pending at the disability hearing level, meaning that a request for hearing was previously submitted, there is not necessarily a need to be concerned if you do not hear anything for several months. Currently, disability claimants are waiting anywhere from five to fifteen months to be scheduled for a hearing before an administrative law judge.

Having said this, though, it is still a good idea to call for the status of your hearing request at least once. This is simply to ensure that the Social Security office did, in fact, receive the hearing appeal that either you or you disability lawyer submitted and, secondly, to ensure that the hearing request resulted in the case being transferred from the Social Security office to the hearing office, known officially as ODAR, the office of Adjudication and Review.

If your case is pending at the hearing office, you or your representative can contact your local Social Security office or the hearing office to check the status of your disability claim. Again, it is usally better to contact the office that is actually working on the claim. In this case, that would be the hearing office. And, once again, this contact number can be obtained from the Social Security office.