Disability Determination Services (DDS) are the state agencies that make initial and reconsideration determinations for Social Security disability and SSI claims. That is where the medical records are ordered and the claim is evaluated by a disability adjudicator.

For quite a while, there has been a bottleneck at DDS for claims awaiting medical review, and claims are spending months in the queue awaiting review. This obviously delays resolution of those claims.

Additionally, we are now seeing growing delays in Staging, which occurs after an initial claim claim or Reconsideration request has been processed by the local office and sent to DDS. Staging is the period of time that the claim is pending at DDS awaiting the assignment of a disability examiner. Currently in Maine, I have an initial claim that has been in Staging for 5 months. I filed the claim in January, and it was sent to DDS on February 18, 2025. Here we are 5 months later, and no adjudicator has been assigned. It is frustrating for lawyer and client alike.