Congratulations! You have won your Social Security disability case and have been approved for SSI! You have read my article about when you should get paid. But, weeks have gone by and you still have not heard anything from your local Social Security office about your benefits.

Is anyone working on my case?

Is there anyone there?

Hello?

While some SSI cases get very fast processing (sometimes an appointment is scheduled at the Social Security office before the hearing decision is even delivered), other cases wait for more than a month with seemingly no activity from Social Security.

Here is a tip: you can actually go in at any time after the favorable decision to get your SSI benefits processed.

Keep in mind this only applies to SSI benefits. If you have been approved to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, those are processed by a regional payment center. While your local Social Security office can check on the processing status, they cannot process those benefits themselves.

If you do decide to go in to get your benefits processed, get ready to wait when you arrive. Depending on how busy your local Social Security office is, you may be there half a day before you a technician can meet with you. You may also want to review my tips for surviving a trip to the Social Security office.

Do not to abuse this. Social Security is doing the best it can with limited resources. If you can wait a bit longer to get your benefits processed, they will get to you. However, if you have already waited more than a month after getting your SSI approval, with no sign of Social Security getting to your case, this may be an option.

One more thing to remember if you need to speed up your Social Security case: don’t forget to check if your case qualifies for expedited processing as a dire need case.

A quickie article answering a common question: can you garnish Social Security disability benefits for child support?

Title 2 Disability Insurance (aka SSDI or DIB) benefits can be garnished for child support.

However, Title 16 Supplemental Security Income (aka SSI) benefits cannot be garnished. 

This is general information only and not legal advice. Contact a lawyer for advice on your specific circumstances.

Do you want to know how much you would receive in Social Security benefits if you were disabled, retired, or if your spouse died?  

Social Security has online calculators, as well as calculators you can download (Mac versions too), to help you estimate what your Social Security benefits will be. 

If you have problems using these calculators, Social Security also estimates your retirement, disability, and family maximum benefits in the ”Social Security Statement” it mails to you every year before your birthday. Tip: the benefit estimates usually appears in the inner, left page.  

Have you tried Social Security’s benefit calculators?  Were they easy to use, or did you have problems?  Tell us in the comments!