The latest statistics for average processing times for the Social Security hearing offices just arrived. The average processing time for the Portland, Maine hearing office stands at 327 days – just about 11 months.
Processing time runs from the day the hearing office receives your hearing request to the day a decision is issued. The 327 days is an average. Some claims are resolved more quickly. A claim that goes to hearing and a written decision is likely to take longer.
In New Hampshire, the Manchester hearing office has an average processing time of 421 days – about 14 months. While this is 94 days longer than in Maine, New Hampshire is a prototype state that skips the Reconsideration step. Since months are not being lost in New Hampshire waiting for Reconsideration, claims are actually moving from initial denial to hearing more quickly than in Maine (where 4-5 months are lost at the Reconsideration step of the process).